Well, with the Forgotten Gods expansion Merit Tokens were introduced which allow players to skip difficulties if they want to so Ultimate got 59 shrines in total so players wanting only one playthrough could get all devotion points on the one difficulty.
Most players skip up to Ultimate and then drop back down into Normal, since the tokens unlock the riftgates on the lower difficulties, and then they grab many shrines which are near to riftgates on that difficulty before going back into Ultimate.