I meant to discuss Souls games' exclusion of difficulty sliders in a vacuum, separate from the Garfield discussion.

As prefaced in my comment, I agree with your points about Garfield: the developers should definitely be held accountable for their shortcomings and for hyping up a product that falls flat of its promised contend.

But I don't agree with difficulty sliders being shunned by the "hardcore" community. I feel like this nurtures an elitist environment that doesn't do its fanbase any good other than gatekeeping and separating fans.

Again, just a separate discussion altogether, not related to the Garfield discussion.