Poll: Hard Difficulty as an unlock?

[Bad Jim]

It actually makes sense from the publisher's perspective to keep the harder difficulties locked.
There are a lot of people who see themselves as having something to prove, or similar, and so play any game on the hardest difficulty they can and will refuse to lower it even if they have problems. If you give these people the hardest difficulty right off, then they'll play it even though they're probably not very good at it. So, in turn, they will die a lot and won't enjoy the game as much as they might, or even outright dislike it. And then, when their friends ask about it, they'll say the game wasn't very good.
Alternatively, if the harder modes are locked, then these people will be forced to play on a difficulty that they can cope with, and so will enjoy the game more, and so will talk better about it to their friends who might then go on to buy it.

I agree that it's bad for us to have such options locked at the start, but they're not just doing it randomly.

They should do what they did in Quake, where easy, medium and hard modes are available but very hard is hidden, though easily accessible once you know where it is. And/or make them kill a single room full of tough enemies to prove they have the skill for the hardest modes.

There's no need to make someone play through the entire game before they can select the difficulty they want. What if I have to reinstall? What if I have played previous games in the franchise a lot or other, similar games? What if I'm just a masochist and like attempting every fight 100+ times?