The games are a success in sales and gamer feedback from what I hear, so that's a good reason to stay with that brutal, punishing style of game with bosses that are tougher than nails.
I personally rather play a fun game first, before a game that is brutally difficult and unforgiving without decent checkpoints, due to limited free time. The last thing I want to do is not see progress but keep playing the same section over and over until I finally get it right. Not enough free time in life to do that at the moment.
That said, if the open world is epic in scale and variety, I'll definitely consider this game even with the brutal difficulty. Maybe I can skip most of the bosses if the map is fully open from the start and explore while building the character up, eventually getting strong enough to wipe them out. If that's possible.