Anstane

Both difficulties have their ups and downs. Intense is more geared towards people more familiar and more committed and ultimately enjoy a much better experience for being more experts of the system. There's absolutely nothing wrong with playing normal mode as forcing yourself to suffer because a few people like the higher difficulty isn't worth it. There's a reason why there are multiple difficulties

While I do prefer Intense mode, partly because I like using debug for perfect ivs, the first two gym battles feel insanely challenging if you don't have the right pokemon.