Difficulty?

Hi all! I just picked up this game during the winter sale and I absolutely love it. I think I'm probably about halfway through the game - don't spoil anything, but I am one mission past first getting into the midzone and have about 21 hours logged. My only complaint is that I'm playing on the "standard" difficulty, but... the game seems too easy? My garage is overflowing with materials to the point that it's almost not worth checking things on drives anymore. I've also unlocked almost everything I can given the energy limitations (haven't found any corrupted yet but have plenty of stable and unstable, and I haven't unlocked all the armor variants simply because I haven't needed them).

I feel like I'm not far enough into the game to warrant this much progress and I haven't really spent much time exploring either I don't think.

Anyways, all of this is to ask: what do you think the real difficulty is? Should I restart before I get too far ahead of myself to have a better experience? Which difficulty do you think is the "authentic" experience? Perhaps an example is God of War, for me, at least: I play those on "give me god of war" because nothing else feels challenging enough (I tend to play on tougher difficulties). Curious what the vets in this sub think, if this post is even allowed. Thanks in advance!