Sure hard games can still be made. In fact, I think there's a resurgence of such games with the gaining popularity of the Dark Souls series and the remaster of Crash Bandicot or the XCOM games. People want hard hitting games as much as they want casual games.

Problem is, alot of them these days don't attempt to make it complex so it is hard to master, but opt into making enemies bullet sponges or implement some sort of energy system or a slow grind to extend the game and force you into buying "gold" equipment via microtransactions.

That is not hard, just a cheap way to get more money out of people. And I for one don'l like that.

Great post btw!