Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Gormogon]

24-man content is easier than 8-man content by both design and definition. CT2 will be easier than Coil 1. People will be starting new characters and running CT2 two weeks later. Brutal Mode and Shiva aren't 2.3.

24 and 40 man can be way harder than 8 man by forcing 23 or 39 players to play at their best.

Only reason why CT is easier is simply because the mechanics are forgiving. If they made them unforgiving then there would be no difference in difficulty between Coil and CT and that really is what difficulty is here.