There are examples of subtle difficulty shifts too, such as RE4. The game will spawn more/less enemies and change drop rates based on player performance.

Reminds me of some other cool game mechanics that have been patented/copyrighted leading to games as a whole losing out on fantastic ideas. The nemesis system from the Shadow of Mordor games / loading screen minigames come to mind.

They will have a very difficult time with prior art, especially given there's been literal articles about L4D's dynamic difficulty adjustments to pace the game with the 'director.'

There's a number of games with dynamic difficulty adjustments, so the scope for this to be successfully defended would need to be quite narrow.

Or even more in your face directly from nintendo: in mario kart (like all of them) you get a banana or green shell if you're in 1st and things like blue shells and flying chain chomps if you're in last. The worse you do, the better your items get.

I think if this is implemented properly, both players should be acting like the trophy was a challenge to get, even rating it the same difficulty.

I'm imagining in game like Hollow Knight, boss fights have movesets, and given your internal difficulty score', harder/more varied movesets can be used.

It would be beneficial for people who don't have much experience with platformers/fighting games, and gives experienced players a challenge.