TLDR: SR is definitely a different game mode, and it’s by far the easiest content, and yet most rewarding content, ever added to the game (unless you play Hardcore, where SR still has problems because there is too much RNG at deep SR depths)
Virtually no one is going to vote to make things harder on themselves. Only the rare few that enjoy a challenge (myself included)
Grim Dawn has become far too easy over the years, in my opinion. But Forgotten Gods really lowered the bar.
First, it added the ability to transmute sets, but at least that came with some cost. And then SR came along and made it so that virtually any build, no matter how weak, could farm gear. This is even easier than main campaign because in the roguelike dungeons, if you die, you don’t get to go back!
Shattered Realm is most definitely a different game mode. Claiming that SR is Main Campaign because it rewards skill points/attribute points, is like saying Crucible is Main Campaign because it rewards the same loot you get from the actual Main Campaign (gear). It’s not the rewards that make a game mode. It’s the mechanics. SR mechanics vary enough from both Main Campaign and Crucible that it warrants being called its own game mode, IMO. SR has enough unique mechanics (shards, boss levels, timers, shrines, shattered souls increasing damage, filling a meter with souls, randomness in general) to call it a different mode.
My personal suspicion is that SR is as easy as it is (virtually no penalty for death) to increase sales. Unfortunately, that makes for a far less rewarding game for people who like a challenge, and like to be rewarded for overcoming that challenge. With SR, you don’t really need to learn the game. You can just keep zerging until you get your loot. The only exception is if you push so far that you literally cannot advance; which is a very easy problem to counter (don’t push that far!)
I think about all the people who were posting about how difficult Morgoneth is. They couldn’t beat him because they weren’t good enough at the game. Once they understand the mechanics (got better) and geared/skill appropriately, they could beat him. But you don’t even really need to do that for SR softcore.
A weak build cannot farm Crucible because a weak build will die in the Crucible. Really weak builds cannot farm roguelikes because really weak builds die in the roguelikes. But given enough persistence, even really weak builds can farm Shattered Realms. I have friends who never beat Crucible 150 in their life (even with buffs/banners); yet they are happily farming SR 65.
I do think that at minimum, any death should remove timers. You still get rewarded, but then at least dying in SR has some real meaning, which would also reward better builds (builds that can finish 65-66 without dying can farm better then weak builds that die). I use 65-66 because I believe Crate has basically said there is no balancing after 65.
All that said, I think that the chance of death penalty being increased for SR is very close to 0%. Non-free games with high replay value (like Grim Dawn) tend to get easier over time - because it increases sales. Compare to free games (like the original rogue likes: Nethack, Angband, etc.) - they are just as hard today as they every were. Because the people making those free games have no financial incentive to make things easier. Just my suspicion.
The real issue here is that build strength matters less in SR than it should; other factors (player persistence, RNG) matter more. IN SR, weak builds are not punished enough; and by comparison, strong builds are not rewarded enough. There is a reason the top builders still use Crucible as the standard/testing grounds : in Crucible, build strength matters a LOT.