Well... my point is that easy, medium and hard all come across as "easy", but with varying levels of resource expenditure.
Which is why I would prefer not using those labels.
Well how you see it, but I don't know that your view point is particularly pervasive among players and DMs on this subject. Of course I have no idea if any viewpoint has any amount of traction for that matter!
Instead of "hard" (say), perhaps it should be called "taxing", since it isn't really percieved to be hard. It just so happens that after the fight, the players realize they've used up some resources.
As for difficulty there is only "non-challenging" (I like "trivial" myself) and "challenging" (and perhaps "deadly" if that is reserved for something much more deadly than 10% risk of single player death*)
Labelling resource expenditure is really what it is about, and there I'm arguing we should use more appropriate labels. Not easy and hard, but low and high (resource expenditure). Or "taxing" as I suggested earlier. Or whatever that can't be confused for a label on difficulty.
I agree to some extent, but as I said before it all seems like semantics. Your replacing a word you don't like with one you do like. I guess my preference would be to keep the terms used in the DMG and instead define them differently.
A rough example:
- Instead of "easy" we could... well, actually I want us to drop this completely trivial and uninteresting category. This isn't even an encounter, it's a speed-bump. (meaning it might still be an explore or social encounter, just not a combat encounter)
- Instead of "medium" let's use "non-challenging with low to no resource expenditure".
- Instead of "hard" let's use "non-challenging with medium resource expenditure".
- Instead of "deadly" let's use "non-challenging with high to nova resource expenditure; challenging with low to medium resource expenditure".
- Instead of "double deadly" let's use "challenging with medium to high resource expenditure".
- Instead of "triple deadly or more" let's use "ensured challenging at any level of resource expenditure".
Or we could say:
Easy. An easy encounter is non-challenging with little to no resource expenditure.
Medium. A medium encounter is non-challenging with minor resource expenditure. The characters may expect to loose some hit points and spend a few short or long rest resources, but they should emerge victorious with no casualties or major resource use.
Hard. A hard encounter is challenging with minor resource use, refer to medium, or non-challenging with major resource expenditure. The characters can expect to loose significant health resources (hit points and/or healing) and spend up to a quarter (spit-balling here) of there short or long rest resources.
Deadly. A deadly encounter is challenging with major resource expenditure, refer to hard, and can result in character deaths. Characters can expect to loose a majority of their health, long rest, and short rest resources to escape with their lives.
The actual XP budgets would then be modified based on the table assumptions (mine are lower than yours) versus the actual part size, composition, skill, and/or play style.