What do I think of beginner/low star difficulties (and why I make them and sometimes support people making them)
This might sound hypocritical from me, but I do have some objections about the beginner difficulty. I've done that several times, several times not extremely reasonably, but there was a certain philosophy behind it which I would like to elaborate a little bit.
Why do you need a beginner/low star difficulty? It was usually to not have only 2-diff spread for low-BPM or very calm songs, I didn't want to look like a lazy mapper. That is not super reasonable, but it still makes a little bit of sense. Another reason was because I wanted to give the Hard few jumps for emphasis - the map was still very calm, didn't need anything more than a bit easier hard, with some elements that usually appear in insane. That automatically means that the Normal cannot be as easy, it needs to remove few mapping techniques from the hard (jumps, spacing changes, 1/4 notes etc.) and decrease the overall density of objects. But that means that the real easy is missing. You don't need to include it, but if you want to, there's no issue about it, you will provide the map to one more group of people and more people might enjoy it in the result. The last reason I can remember of was to make a very introductory map for beginners, but when is it really needed? If there is an Easy in a regular pop song, it is usually won't happen, but sometimes the song is just so complicated that if you want to simplify in a consistent spread, the Easy will still keep the complicated rhythms. And that's not bad, it will learn you to get used to the complicated rhythms, then you can move to Normal etc. However, before that, you always need to know how to click properly to some constant and straightforward rhythm. In such a case, having a beginner difficulty is in my opinion more than welcome. Because newcomer will be able to play the map with a simplified rhythm, but won't be much interested in something that doesn't look constant to them.
Now, if I take a look at your map, being seen as a lazy mapper is probably not a problem in this mapset, so even though having only few diffs would not be extremely good reason for having a pointless difficulty, we have more than enough here. Easy->Advanced mostly only change SV, spacing and density. Not many skill-based techniques are added, easy is not forced to be complicated rhythmically nor movement-wise, so the second and third idea also don't apply much. However, yes, the easy is not as easy as some people would expect due to the slider velocity etc., so maybe some kind of introductory difficulty would be acceptable, I would not have much against that.
Nevertheless, they way you chose to map it is not probably the best one. If you are really attempting to provide a difficulty that should introduce the players to the game and you are afraid that current easy is too hard, yeah, go with some beginner, but keep in mind that you want to simplify the song rather than to skip certain parts of the song. The introductory difficulties with help in 3 ways - It work the same as a tutorial, you have enough time to realise that you have to click and aim etc., the thing it will teach you is to hold some constant rhythm - it will teach you to play the important sounds accurately, and the last point is that it will teach you the time-distance rule, which is useful in the beginning as most E-H maps use constant spacing.
Actually addressing the issue
1. Issue - Ignoring sounds
I would understand this: 00:00:281 (1) - You are skipping really unimportant parts of the song, only the guitar/harp (or whatever plucked string instrument it is). But things like: 00:08:238 (1) - 00:12:217 (3) - 00:16:196 (1) - are quite an abuse of the whole importance of the difficulty just for sake of slider art. You are omitting important sounds that are basically the only important thing in such a basic difficulty. New players don't need to know how to hold a slider for 2 seconds if they can learn to click properly instead, which is giving them some actual skill. 00:32:111 (1) - This would be obvious, quite an intense part of the song, but the slider just ignores anything it has and forces you to hold it for like 8 seconds.
If you think about it, easy is pretty much full of 1/1 and 2/1 sliders and circles (also 1/1 or 2/1). The beginner however uses 3/1 sliders (mostly with repeats), which would be fine, but also a plenty of 6/1 sliders and even a 24/1 slider and some circles with about 3/1 gaps. The difference is very major and it is not even filling the purpose that an introductory difficulty could have. You could easily map sounds such as 00:09:233 - 00:13:212 - instead of the pointlessly long sliders and you would take the constant rhythm (that will teach newbies something) back. Now, you can think about this part, 00:32:111 (1) - you don't necessarily need to get away all the slider art. You can notice that sounds like 00:33:105 - on the sliders are quite unattractive for clicking, they are not significant enough, however each other sound like 00:34:100 - 00:36:090 - 00:38:079 - is kind of a strum, which is more significant and maybe would also be worth mapping. This time, you could use the 6/1 sliders with your slider art - not only the part sounds somewhat mysterious (might be fitting well for interesting shapes), it will also not ignore important sounds that occur here, will provide a more constant and sensible rhythm and most importantly, will get a rid off the difference between the next difficulty.
2. Spacing/SV
While I think the SV is pretty playable for any newbie, they way objects are placed is going against any time-distance rule. You tend to move on the slider for about the same amount as you would move from object to object for the same amount of time. It might be a bit lower, but less then half looks like an extreme to me, just for sake of making an easier difficulty. Again, this won't help newbies in any way, the will be resting for seconds on the same place instead of actually having to write the movement into their hands. The stacks you are using are not doing it much better, there is almost no motion that would teach the newbies anything and it just creates a bit unpleasant reading. Objects clustered in one place are not always perceived in a good way.
That's probably all I'd like to say here. I don't aim this directly at Krfawy nor anyone who stands behind him. I'm just giving some of my subjective opinion + arguments for why it doesn't necessarily need to be completely purged, but also why it is not 100% alright and doesn't actually help as much as it could if you are going for any kind of introductory difficulty.
This might sound hypocritical from me, but I do have some objections about the beginner difficulty. I've done that several times, several times not extremely reasonably, but there was a certain philosophy behind it which I would like to elaborate a little bit.
Why do you need a beginner/low star difficulty? It was usually to not have only 2-diff spread for low-BPM or very calm songs, I didn't want to look like a lazy mapper. That is not super reasonable, but it still makes a little bit of sense. Another reason was because I wanted to give the Hard few jumps for emphasis - the map was still very calm, didn't need anything more than a bit easier hard, with some elements that usually appear in insane. That automatically means that the Normal cannot be as easy, it needs to remove few mapping techniques from the hard (jumps, spacing changes, 1/4 notes etc.) and decrease the overall density of objects. But that means that the real easy is missing. You don't need to include it, but if you want to, there's no issue about it, you will provide the map to one more group of people and more people might enjoy it in the result. The last reason I can remember of was to make a very introductory map for beginners, but when is it really needed? If there is an Easy in a regular pop song, it is usually won't happen, but sometimes the song is just so complicated that if you want to simplify in a consistent spread, the Easy will still keep the complicated rhythms. And that's not bad, it will learn you to get used to the complicated rhythms, then you can move to Normal etc. However, before that, you always need to know how to click properly to some constant and straightforward rhythm. In such a case, having a beginner difficulty is in my opinion more than welcome. Because newcomer will be able to play the map with a simplified rhythm, but won't be much interested in something that doesn't look constant to them.
Now, if I take a look at your map, being seen as a lazy mapper is probably not a problem in this mapset, so even though having only few diffs would not be extremely good reason for having a pointless difficulty, we have more than enough here. Easy->Advanced mostly only change SV, spacing and density. Not many skill-based techniques are added, easy is not forced to be complicated rhythmically nor movement-wise, so the second and third idea also don't apply much. However, yes, the easy is not as easy as some people would expect due to the slider velocity etc., so maybe some kind of introductory difficulty would be acceptable, I would not have much against that.
Nevertheless, they way you chose to map it is not probably the best one. If you are really attempting to provide a difficulty that should introduce the players to the game and you are afraid that current easy is too hard, yeah, go with some beginner, but keep in mind that you want to simplify the song rather than to skip certain parts of the song. The introductory difficulties with help in 3 ways - It work the same as a tutorial, you have enough time to realise that you have to click and aim etc., the thing it will teach you is to hold some constant rhythm - it will teach you to play the important sounds accurately, and the last point is that it will teach you the time-distance rule, which is useful in the beginning as most E-H maps use constant spacing.
Actually addressing the issue
1. Issue - Ignoring sounds
I would understand this: 00:00:281 (1) - You are skipping really unimportant parts of the song, only the guitar/harp (or whatever plucked string instrument it is). But things like: 00:08:238 (1) - 00:12:217 (3) - 00:16:196 (1) - are quite an abuse of the whole importance of the difficulty just for sake of slider art. You are omitting important sounds that are basically the only important thing in such a basic difficulty. New players don't need to know how to hold a slider for 2 seconds if they can learn to click properly instead, which is giving them some actual skill. 00:32:111 (1) - This would be obvious, quite an intense part of the song, but the slider just ignores anything it has and forces you to hold it for like 8 seconds.
If you think about it, easy is pretty much full of 1/1 and 2/1 sliders and circles (also 1/1 or 2/1). The beginner however uses 3/1 sliders (mostly with repeats), which would be fine, but also a plenty of 6/1 sliders and even a 24/1 slider and some circles with about 3/1 gaps. The difference is very major and it is not even filling the purpose that an introductory difficulty could have. You could easily map sounds such as 00:09:233 - 00:13:212 - instead of the pointlessly long sliders and you would take the constant rhythm (that will teach newbies something) back. Now, you can think about this part, 00:32:111 (1) - you don't necessarily need to get away all the slider art. You can notice that sounds like 00:33:105 - on the sliders are quite unattractive for clicking, they are not significant enough, however each other sound like 00:34:100 - 00:36:090 - 00:38:079 - is kind of a strum, which is more significant and maybe would also be worth mapping. This time, you could use the 6/1 sliders with your slider art - not only the part sounds somewhat mysterious (might be fitting well for interesting shapes), it will also not ignore important sounds that occur here, will provide a more constant and sensible rhythm and most importantly, will get a rid off the difference between the next difficulty.
2. Spacing/SV
While I think the SV is pretty playable for any newbie, they way objects are placed is going against any time-distance rule. You tend to move on the slider for about the same amount as you would move from object to object for the same amount of time. It might be a bit lower, but less then half looks like an extreme to me, just for sake of making an easier difficulty. Again, this won't help newbies in any way, the will be resting for seconds on the same place instead of actually having to write the movement into their hands. The stacks you are using are not doing it much better, there is almost no motion that would teach the newbies anything and it just creates a bit unpleasant reading. Objects clustered in one place are not always perceived in a good way.
That's probably all I'd like to say here. I don't aim this directly at Krfawy nor anyone who stands behind him. I'm just giving some of my subjective opinion + arguments for why it doesn't necessarily need to be completely purged, but also why it is not 100% alright and doesn't actually help as much as it could if you are going for any kind of introductory difficulty.