I like to RP so yeah game is harder nonetheless even with off-meta races dungeon clairing is the way to go, you can stick to the early ones (goblin dens, bandits dens) till the mayor elections no problem.
You can stick to the easy quest for the 1rst 2 weeks and even then I rarely go to medium. Taking 3 or 4 weeks doesn't change much so I prefer taking my time to gain the 4 guilds support (for the bonus item).
Without meta-races you can go as low as 2 combattants per dungeon (for safety reasons), with the meta you can solo them.
So far a couple fighters and a pair or 2 of prostitutes are enough for the mayor elections, with the changes in obedience and limited dates you must keep your roster low (well until you got the dancer class... but I try to keep it low before CW).
Since I like to roleplay I hope the difficulty won't ramp up further, I prefer to play leniently after all and for now it's still fun but the changes in the date system did put a discomfort for me.
I'm not minmaxing so I don't crush the game like the previous posters but the dev should keep into consideration that normally a lot of players are into RP (I think) so the difficulty should be centered around this player base. Of course I'm not against a separate harder mode for those who prefer challenging themselves.