It was a lovely stream. When it comes to difficulty, grinding is not really necessary but it for sure makes things a lot simpler. There is more hidden depth in the combat than what initially might seem to be the case, and it is a fairly easy system to "break" in different ways.
I kinda of want it to be tough if you do not engage deeper with the systems, whereas grinding becomes a "easy mode". That said, the earliest parts of the game, before you get more options, additional characters etc are the parts where grinding gives you the most bang for your buck. Balancing shit is hard, any specific inputs are appreciated, etc: lower the cost of this, raise the damage of this.