I think people are starting to put the cart before the horse with all the discussion about difficulty. Not to say it should be easier, but something that has gone to the wayside super hard with the focus on QoL and monster ecology is all the hunter life stuff. Gunner ammo being streamlined out of existence is the most obvious one, but things like map exploration, looking for rare consumable ingredients, etc. have all been QoL'd to death. The reason the classic village hunter setting worked so well for older games is that it added to the feeling that you're just some dude working out of a tiny hamlet that has to be entirely self-sufficient.
