This is a tough question, because QoL changes pretty much always make a game easier. The big question is what ways do they do so, and how does that impact the rest of the game? I would argue there's not really a definitive line you can draw to answer that question, though, and it's something you need to look at more on a case by case basis. The big questions you have to ask are: A. How does this change affect the rest of the game from a mechanical standpoint B. How will players react to the change On the surface, A is relatively easy to gauge. For instance, being able to level up at every bonfire/lantern/Grace lowers the stakes, because you aren't carrying around as high a volume of souls/Echoes/Runes. Not carrying around a high value of currency means there won't be as big of a setback if you lose them all. This makes things easier, sure, but it doesn't make a difficult fight any less difficult. B however, is much harder to predict, which kinda sucks, because this is arguably the one that impacts things more. What you need to remember is players will always optimize the fun out of a game, taking the boring easy route when one presents itself. So, for example, perhaps they found a really good spot to grind currency, and so now that they can level up at any checkpoint, they may just run back and forth from a single checkpoint, killing some high value enemies until they can level up a ton. By and large, I say things tend to go where something could clearly fall into the QoL camp when used in its intended fashion, but they can oft be used in ways that make them feel like they're babying the game down. The best example I can think of is in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. You see... [spoiler]One core mechanic of the game is fusing spells together into bigger spells. The most important spells you can fuse are Holy (Element + Raise) and Gravity (Element 1 + Element 2). These spells are crucial for exposing the weaknesses of undead and flying enemies, who can only take minimal damage until they're struck by the respective spell. The result of this is whenever you see one of these enemies, your team needs to work together to fuse the spell and take them down, which is really fun. In the remastered version, however, you can obtain a Holy Ring, and a Gravity Ring, which enable you to cast these spells without fusion. However, the only way to get these Rings is from Tier 6 dungeons. You can only play dungeons up to Tier 3 until you beat the game, and there are only 7 Tiers total, so if you can beat a Tier 6 dungeon, then all you really have left to do is beat the Tier 7 dungeons, which are composed entirely of undead or flying enemies respectively, meaning you need to cast the spells so quickly that fusion isn't really feasible anyway. When used as intended, it's kind of just a fun endgame reward, to help finish out your endgame grind. Definitely just QoL. But, then you can have endgame players carry newbies through the endgame dungeons--intentionally or otherwise--getting them these Rings much earlier than they're supposed to, allowing them to never actually learn how to fuse spells, and likewise, you can have endgame players come in to low level dungeons, throwing their Holy and Gravity spells around without giving the newbs a chance to figure it out. Due to player abuse, it does baby the game down just a little bit.[/spoiler] Honestly, though, I think the important question to ask isn't whether or not something makes the game easier--because as mentioned, all QoL changes make the game easier--but rather ask if the core ideas of the game are still intact. Do you still get the core experience of the game despite the changes made? As long as that answer is yes, I don't think you have too much to worry about (though there will always be some elitists crying about it).