This is ridiculous. People have said this already, but why are you acting like you are somehow losing your punishingly hard game? People have been able to adjust the difficulty in their games for years, sometimes even on the dot if they don't feel like dealing with a particularly punishing part of the game. I know that before I got broadband, I would simply have to put down a game and leave it for weeks or months on end if I couldn't manage a particular area, or figure out a particular puzzle. Having an adjustable difficulty levels that don't reflect their labels (e.g. easy shouldn't be too hard and hard shouldn't be too easy) can only help to make a game better.
The most notable example I can think of is Kid Icarus: Uprising, which had 91 different difficulty levels, ranging from "We gave the bad guys a complimentary lobotomy" and "Fuck you and your children". The thing about it is that it not only allows players of any skill level to play it, it involved a risk/reward system where you had to pay in-game cash to get the harder levels, which in turn would grant better rewards if you succeeded. This challenged to player to find the fine line between cake-walking the game for little return, and losing their 'bet' by getting stomped.
I think a 'slider' system like this should be implemented in any game where it would fit.