I agree with you that some people are misguided and expect dark souls to be hard for the sake of being hard. Yes you die a lot but that is part of the game, and dying is not a state of failure but a step in getting better in order to overcome the obstacle.

I have seen people not only beat the game but do a no hit run with guitar hero guitar, dance dance gamepad and even raw potatoes. Making the game easy does not equal to making it ‘accessible’, but it does break the core gameplay loop. There are ways to make games more accessible in general that doesn’t ruin the fun factor. Check out AbleGamers they are doing amazing work helping the community which I think is one of the best ways to go about this issue.