I couldn't even get through a third of the thread. So I'm going to say what I need to say, the only couple of sentences being the only ones that needs to be read

TLR - No. Do not raise the difficulty. It will make everyone's lives worse.

This will be the 3rd expansion that I'm playing. As I'm currently watching from the Wolves Den I see things getting a whole lot easier from kits being more easier to use to trials being less punishing like the change that was made to Titan. The one thing that has stayed the same going through the expansion is that on a casual level people will play to the bare minimum, and it will continue to be accepted as so as long as they're able to get what they need done for the day. You can go to a different game, and you will not be able to escape that fact when it comes to all pve content regardless of what game is being played. Going against the grain is only making things harder overall.
Clear example doing multi pulls and expecting to heal them. I'll agree with some and say and that everyone should be able to do just that. However, that doesnt make it acceptable. If one's not ready everyone is wiping from the pulls. I got sick of dealing with wiping for no reason that I ended up carrying actual potions for the old content in order to attempt to carry the group should the tank and healer die from that pull. I did not feel like dying over a failed pull anymore. There's no way that I should be playing frontlines in a pve dungeon (That's how i look at it, because I used to play blue dps in pvp last expansion) over a mistake that could be avoided. Safe to say that I dont have to deal with it anymore, because i refuse to do roulettes for the sole purpose of failed mulit pulls.
Point of the matter: Don't tell people how to play. If you have to up your dps in order to speed things quicker so be it. I would like for people to get better. However, if that's not the goal for some people then they're not going to do it. There's nothing you can do about it, especially if you're running things solo queue. Just get through it and be done with it.