Like (as much as I hate to admit it) there is room for both of these types of games, but a lot of friction and circular arguing occurs in public reception when a game ends up attracting both types of audiences, and as a designer you should be prepared to accommodate both beyond difficulty settings
One must imagine that a more bespoke "difficulty" setting in Eternal that disabled enemy resistances and simplified resource gain instead of the usual tweaked HP/damage values would better get at the heart of why 2016 fans didn't jive with Eternal
i don't think this applies, given im pretty sure doom 2016's bad initial reception was due to how modernized and not doom it looked, especially with how they gave us an open beta for the multiplayer, not even singleplayer.
can you explain exactly what you mean by "flow games"?
Games more about establishing a kind of continuous gameplay loop or flow that doesn't get interrupted by f.e. forcing you to adapt to something. You could consider puzzle games to be the polar opposite of those since by their nature each puzzle will force you to come up with new solutions
Eternal tried to break up the loops and flow established by DOOM 2016 by having specific enemies demand more specific responses, and if you read through its user reviews closely that's generally the main gripe 2016 fans have with Eternal
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can you explain exactly what you mean by "flow games"?