I have actually gravitated more towards easy now as I've gotten older, because I just don't have the time or the patience for anything else...all hard modes in most video games add these days is enemy health and enemy damage, and it just makes things more time-consuming, which is not the same as making it more difficult. If a game is going to waste my time by dragging on fights for longer than is necessary, rather than testing my skills as a player, I'll play on easy. All a hard mode like that really tests is my endurance, and I don't mind admitting that I don't have the patience to pound away at something that repeats the same attack patterns over and over for hours in the name of a challenge.
Although if a game offers me incentive to play on higher difficulties - like improved EXP gains, item drop rates, and attacks/patterns that are completely absent from lower difficulties, I will jump right into it. Really, it depends on the type of game, and how well it's designed.