I'm not sure what you mean by "difficulty". Abyssea is definitely a fun place as it is where you can have the good Atmas and enjoy the fun of hitting for 3-5k ws. But the NMs doesn't die that easily (certain ones, I'm not sure maybe you have just been killing easier NM in the pre-hero areas? even there, there are strong NMs too) Think back pre-Abyssea time, there are not THAT many NM that is considered "difficult" and I would not agree if you put a lot of time into fighting it, it's difficult, that's just time sinking. (PM and Absolute Virtue comes to mind) SE simply doesn't want to repeat these 2 epic failures.

Regarding drop rates, it is balance as it is IMO. Good gears still requires you spend some good amount of time to get. AF3+1 requires 8-10 seals, dropping from NM that even proc-ing yellow may not yield you any (every NM drops 4 different jobs' seals) I appreciate the change of trigger item popping NM, b/c the old "camping" for 1 NM way is way too crazy of a time sink (NM respawn 8hr,12hr,24hr and only 1 group gets it out of a population of thousands? is not what I think Challenging means) Good gears still requires some good amount of time to obtain, look at the best augmented weapon ones, you need a lot of time / effort in order to get them, but simply not like before, where everything is a TIME SINK, dynamis weapon, mystic weapon, where it could take you months in order to get, now that's crazy!

Also you gotta think level-cap, the original abyssea area is level cap 80, we are now lvl 90 cap of course it will be easier now than before, but still there are some NM where it is still very difficult/chalenging to low-man (which is the point SE trying to make now, b/c they understand the FFXI population is/will drop, you won't be able to always get a full 18 people alliance to do something and only 1 or 2 people get good loot)

Consider this, without procing blue (which requires you to have quite a few characters with the right skill/ws) drop rate on some of the best gear is near 0%. I have fought Ovni over 20x trying to the bullwhip belt (7% haste) and not get a drop (a THF90 with TH5 to start out), I appreciate SE made a new form of "TH" where it is actually more useful for all jobs, THF's TH is WAAAAY overrated PERIOD.

So like scaevola said, if you feel things are too easy, take off your atma, don't proc blue/yellow and enjoy the poor drop rate and challenging fight yourself, and don't bother the rest of us who actual enjoy/appreciate what SE FINALLY did to resolve the 3hr DO-NOTHING but wait for 2min windows every 30minutes to try to claim 1 NM that's 24hr repop and destorying the real fun of the game