Plenty games have you die with one hit https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneHitPointWonder
Many of those games don’t have difficulty sliders either. At least with Elden Ring there are ways to make your character sturdier if you wanted to. Fingerprint shield or greatshields in general are a great start. Stat dump in health. Wear heavy armor. Grind out as many levels as you need to. It works the same as any other game. It’s not like there’s a permanent game over where you have to start over. Dying and growing have been the point of these games and most games since like the beginning of gaming.
The dying is not the problem, that is part of the game. The problem here is that damage output of enemies is so exaggerated that even simple non-bosses can one shot all builds unless you go for ultra tanky. So basically what you’re saying is, don’t get hit or build specific tanks and not what you enjoy or you will die.
Also my quarrel is mainly with Elden Ring DLC, not every game. Base game is not bad with balancing honestly. The DLC is just ridiculous. And for the love of god, just because some people get kicks out of difficulty doesn’t mean it has to be more extreme every new instance. That fanbase sheep mentality will kill good games like this.
Dark souls 3 was more forgiving in the DLCs than this game.
You can get ~60% damage reduction BEFORE ARMOR in this dlc. This one is on you buddy. Explore.