I don't play video games enough anymore to know whether this is widely acknowledged, but the growing popularity of NewGame+ modes strikes me as really clever design, when you embrace it in full. 

You get to build an accessible experience for most normal players, and sidestep the usual ego problem. i.e. a large amount of men will only pick the highest available difficulty, much like they will only pick the largest size condoms, so if you truly make maximum maximum, then it's unbalanced for the majority (of males anyway; no idea if the pattern repeats for women, that would be interesting to find out).

But as NG+ only starts after the first run is done, no such problem. The casual ego players are gone by then, satisfied with their "max" run1. The remainder is here for the gameplay loop, and (ideally) gets to enjoy an increasingly finetuned experience.

NewGame+ modes indeed offer a clever solution to the difficulty balancing issue in video games. By allowing players to start a new game with their progress intact, it caters to both casual and hardcore gamers. This design eliminates the pressure to always choose the highest difficulty level from the start, creating a more inclusive and enjoyable experience for all players.