Perhaps not necessarily an upside point, but here is the reason Miyazaki gave for the lack of difficulty options (which I think is similar to what
Zornack is trying to say as well):
I think this is the biggest problem that I see with these options or the idea of an "easy mode"... that you take something that has been fine-tuned as best as possible by the developers, the level of challenge (which is pretty much the main core of the game) and believe you could get to the same experience by adjusting it yourself. How would you know if you're not making it too easy? A game that is built around the design philosophy of dying over and over until you master your opponents, learning their pattern perfectly and finally succeeding only when you feel like you truly figured it out... after how many tries would you say "it's still too difficult... let me lower it even further"? 10 tries? 5? 1?
I'm very torn by these problems, because while I've always thought easy mode =/= accessibility necessarily, I'm also not trying to be insensitive to others who really want to experience the game but can't due to different, unfortunate circumstances. And in the end it doesn't really affect me or change my experience, so not sure how valuable my input is at the end of the day. But this idea of an equal mode (one that I totally support)... I don't think is answered with these tune-your-own-difficulty options. Because I think you'll end up playing a completely different game...