I wanted to wait for a proper reply from Krfawy, but might as well throw this in here now.
I know that a lot of beginners struggle with the Easys we have, that's no question. But you'll find this situation in nearly every rhythm game and there is a simple reason: Reducing the difficulty too much will result in rhythmic simplifications to such an extent that the relation to the music is ruined, which goes against the concept of a rhythm game. If you are making a platformer game you can create a tutorial stage as easy as you want because you are the one who fully decides about the concept of the stage, how many obstacles there are etc. But for a rhythm game you are bound to what the song provides, and this doesn't only have an upper limit but also a lower limit, because there's a line (that has been crossed here) where the rhythms become unidentifiable.
It's nice that you are having contact to newbies and ask them how easy it is for them to get into the game and how well they play certain things. Have you ever asked them though, how much do they feel that osu! maps relate to the actual song? Most people I've talked to, especially those with some musical knowledge who aren't satisfied with simply 'doing well-timed clicks to the beat', don't get how most modern Easys relate to the song at all. I've had people literally asking me what about osu! is supposed to be a rhythm game. And this map is a very extreme case of this issue.
Now, I didn't point out specific rhythms where I see those issues before, because it basically applies to the whole map. However, I will do this now, to make my point more clear. I really don't want to create any confusion with what I am saying here. With the conception in mind, that the whole map is supposed to follow the melody (which I can see only because I have some experience in mapping, I highly doubt newbies will be able to see this):
00:00:281 (1,2,3,4) - In this part of the song, there is clear emphasis on the switch between strings and the other melody instrument. The repeated sliders go well with the soft instrument, but then the strings have a much more dense, strong rhythm that puts emphasis on much more than just 00:03:265 (2,4) - these beats.
00:08:238 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4) - The long sliders fit well to the long melody notes in the music in theory, however (again, due to the extreme rhythmic simplicity) the same rhythm is used multiple times in a row, while the music is so different each time. 00:10:227 - has no sound, 00:14:206 - has a sound, 00:18:185 - has no sound again (from the melody). What the melody does, also in terms of how strong certain notes are played, is different in each measure here, however it's all mapped with the same, monotonous rhythms.
00:24:153 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - Once again, 00:24:153 (1,2,3) - actually fits the melody quite well, because there is very strong emphasis on those beats here, but between those objects 00:26:143 (3,4) - the instrument clearly builds up in intensity to lead back into 00:28:132 - to repeat the rhythm again. Having more density in between those objects would ressemble the song better, but as it is now it's all just 3/1-rhythms without much emphasis at all.
00:32:111 (1,1) - And yes, I still stand by my point that the long slider is out of place if it covers the most intense section of the song completely. Not clicking at all throughout this whole section takes away all kind of rhythm emphasis from this section, where it's probably needed the most. About the last note, Okorin already explained that there are equally important beats around it.
So yeah, I hope this can serve as a better explanation why I disagree with the rhythm this map uses.
Now, to talk about the spacing again. No matter what way you put it, 0.4x DS in this case is so low that there is almost no movement required for the timeframe of almost a whole second (gap between two of the beats followed). It makes no sense in the context of a map because almost no movement means basically no emphasis through movement. All of the objects in the map might as well be stacked and it would make no difference gameplay wise (not counting readability). Saying that a higher spacing would be too difficult to play for newbies is unreasonable, because the sliders themselves are significantly faster and require more precision during their timeframe (due to sliderticks having to be aimed, etc.). Krfawy, you basically said that players can aim the sliders well, even on this realatively high speed (which is true) but if the spacing were higher they couldn't aim the circles? It makes no sense.
I hope my points are a bit more clear now, since people also requested me to point out examples. Here we go.
I know that a lot of beginners struggle with the Easys we have, that's no question. But you'll find this situation in nearly every rhythm game and there is a simple reason: Reducing the difficulty too much will result in rhythmic simplifications to such an extent that the relation to the music is ruined, which goes against the concept of a rhythm game. If you are making a platformer game you can create a tutorial stage as easy as you want because you are the one who fully decides about the concept of the stage, how many obstacles there are etc. But for a rhythm game you are bound to what the song provides, and this doesn't only have an upper limit but also a lower limit, because there's a line (that has been crossed here) where the rhythms become unidentifiable.
It's nice that you are having contact to newbies and ask them how easy it is for them to get into the game and how well they play certain things. Have you ever asked them though, how much do they feel that osu! maps relate to the actual song? Most people I've talked to, especially those with some musical knowledge who aren't satisfied with simply 'doing well-timed clicks to the beat', don't get how most modern Easys relate to the song at all. I've had people literally asking me what about osu! is supposed to be a rhythm game. And this map is a very extreme case of this issue.
Now, I didn't point out specific rhythms where I see those issues before, because it basically applies to the whole map. However, I will do this now, to make my point more clear. I really don't want to create any confusion with what I am saying here. With the conception in mind, that the whole map is supposed to follow the melody (which I can see only because I have some experience in mapping, I highly doubt newbies will be able to see this):
00:00:281 (1,2,3,4) - In this part of the song, there is clear emphasis on the switch between strings and the other melody instrument. The repeated sliders go well with the soft instrument, but then the strings have a much more dense, strong rhythm that puts emphasis on much more than just 00:03:265 (2,4) - these beats.
00:08:238 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4) - The long sliders fit well to the long melody notes in the music in theory, however (again, due to the extreme rhythmic simplicity) the same rhythm is used multiple times in a row, while the music is so different each time. 00:10:227 - has no sound, 00:14:206 - has a sound, 00:18:185 - has no sound again (from the melody). What the melody does, also in terms of how strong certain notes are played, is different in each measure here, however it's all mapped with the same, monotonous rhythms.
00:24:153 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - Once again, 00:24:153 (1,2,3) - actually fits the melody quite well, because there is very strong emphasis on those beats here, but between those objects 00:26:143 (3,4) - the instrument clearly builds up in intensity to lead back into 00:28:132 - to repeat the rhythm again. Having more density in between those objects would ressemble the song better, but as it is now it's all just 3/1-rhythms without much emphasis at all.
00:32:111 (1,1) - And yes, I still stand by my point that the long slider is out of place if it covers the most intense section of the song completely. Not clicking at all throughout this whole section takes away all kind of rhythm emphasis from this section, where it's probably needed the most. About the last note, Okorin already explained that there are equally important beats around it.
So yeah, I hope this can serve as a better explanation why I disagree with the rhythm this map uses.
Now, to talk about the spacing again. No matter what way you put it, 0.4x DS in this case is so low that there is almost no movement required for the timeframe of almost a whole second (gap between two of the beats followed). It makes no sense in the context of a map because almost no movement means basically no emphasis through movement. All of the objects in the map might as well be stacked and it would make no difference gameplay wise (not counting readability). Saying that a higher spacing would be too difficult to play for newbies is unreasonable, because the sliders themselves are significantly faster and require more precision during their timeframe (due to sliderticks having to be aimed, etc.). Krfawy, you basically said that players can aim the sliders well, even on this realatively high speed (which is true) but if the spacing were higher they couldn't aim the circles? It makes no sense.
I hope my points are a bit more clear now, since people also requested me to point out examples. Here we go.