Difficulty 10 isn't that hard. I regularly play on 10 and I'm not great at the game.
The truly challenging part of the challenge was that the devs were supposed to use specifically chosen niche, underutilized, and poorly balanced weapons and gear to prove the point that the devs are out of touch in regards to the gameplay and balance of the vast majority of the equipment available to players.
A big aspect of this whole situation is that it arose because a huge chunk of the playerbase is fed up with the developer's decisions.
In your time example, I see it as time going forward, not up. It's progressing. When you scroll with the steam deck you're "progressing" through files, which are normally organized in a descending, downward way.
I had a coworker who would say "scroll up" or "scroll down" depending on if he wanted the document/content to move up or down.
Correct, I was not ready to be bored out of my fucking mind. Way too many other games that are actually worth playing.