It's really a mixed bag in a lot of ways, and at any rate I don't see remotely analogous to the proposed "easy mode". For the most part the changes were either to address straight up bullshit (first part of Lost Izalith) or to reduce tedious grinding (Twinkling Titanites). Nevermind some of the nerfing, it's possible to argue based on nerfs to Pyro alone that earlier versions are the actual "easy mode", not 1.05, and what they did with the Elite Knight set and Iron Flesh was absurd, and they must've recognized this as the poise for Elite Knight's been reset on the PC version.