If you haven't played the two new Mega Man games on either the 360 or PS3, you are missing out on some maddening, well made games. The same can be said for the new Sonic that's out.
I think some games focus too much on the story and others on the game mechanics. Some, in the case of everything Valve has ever done, hit both out of the park. Some games are fun, regardless of difficulty. Take Modern Warfare 2 for example. You mention that you played through it fairly easily. Regardless of the ease that you made it through the game, you can't deny that it's a well polished title.
Have you played Halo:Reach on Legendary? It's practically impossible but a hell of a ride to the finish. What about Uncharted 2 or God of War III? Those are difficult as well on the highest setting. There are still plenty of good games out there that offer plenty of challenge in my opinion.
Many games of our youth were hard as a by product of the technology of the day. In many games, if you died in the middle of the level, you had to start the whole thing over. This was because space was limited on the writable memory. Save points had to be few and far between. This resulted in an elevated difficulty and added time to the game.
The Igniq article really missed the boat. Three of the four games mentioned are designed to be long. Quality role playing games are supposed to take forever to finish. The fourth game mentioned... Half Life 2. Valve can consistently be counted on to make a quality title. The mere fact that the author fails to mention Portal, in an article devoted to bitching about difficulty is unforgivable. It sounds like the author is complaining about length, not difficulty. You can have a short game be horribly difficult and you can have a long game that's easy as hell. You have to focus on the game play. Medal of Honor might be short but that's sometimes what you get when a developer takes a "me too" attitude. This was EA's answer to Modern Warfare 2. It wasn't original and it showed. Knock the game, not the industry.
Oh yeah, Braid? It should be mentioned as well.