I think that's absolutely a factor, yeah. I don't think SMT wants to be mainstream popular, though. They really lean into the concept of a hostile world that doesn't really care about making it easy for you.
It kinda feels like they want to make it clear up front that if you don't have the patience to go through some trial and error and some admittedly unfair deaths, you probably won't enjoy the rest of the game. Sort of a "this is what you should expect" opening to set the tone for the whole experience, which is then progressively mitigated as the player gets better at understanding the combat system, recognizing enemy attack patterns and building out their party.
