I don't feel like doing anything that removes choices and makes the game more boring like the last two examples you gave. I've done so far was Phantom Hourglass with 3 hearts, it instantly turned it into one of my favorite games of all time. I wish I had done that with Twilight Princess too, that game was a snoozefest.
Instead of gameplay impairing things like 4 white mages, I underlevel in RPGs, I run away from most enemies and if I keep dying to a boss I'll just get 2 extra levels.
If there's an item in mario RPGs or zelda games that's only meant for making it more difficult, I always equip them because those two series are always too boringly easy otherwise.
I only started doing these things recently, so this is all I've done.
