If we're talking about the difficulty level of a main story play-through before becoming champion, then practically all Pokémon games are laughably easy. We definitely don't need Pokémon games to be even easier than they already are, or else we'd get Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee again. If anything, I am hoping that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are more much more challenging than the other Pokémon games, but my hopes are a long shot. One of the reasons I loved the fifth generation of Pokémon games is because the developers introduced "Challenge Mode" that at least attempted to make the games more difficult. Nevertheless, the target audience is children and the developers want to make the games as simple but enjoyable as possible for them. I believe the main reason the games are so easy isn't because of the friendship/affection bonuses or even the Exp. Share. If anything, the friendship/affection bonuses make the game more fun for me and the Exp. Share makes raising Pokémon much less tedious. Instead, I believe the lack of challenge exists in the gameplay. For example, too many trainers, namely gym leaders and Elite Four members, always specialize in one type of Pokémon, which makes them easy to beat. You also have the ability to spam items such as Full Restores and Revives to prevent yourself from losing. To make the games more challenging, I believe the developers should make the gym leaders and Elite Four focus more on certain battle strategies rather than specific types all the time, disable Bag item usage in all trainer battles (but wild battles are fine), prevent plot-significant battles from becoming too easy due to over-leveling by temporarily setting all Pokémon to the same when facing gym leaders, rivals, villain team bosses, and the Elite Four, similar to the Battle Tower. Will this ever happen in Pokémon? Never in a million years, but it doesn't hurt to dream, right?