[dwringer]

This is the most interesting aspect of Wordle to me, and the fact that hard-mode pretty much breaks it along with leading to random no-win situations basically ruined Wordle for me. Sure, I can just play it without hard mode - but then my friends and I aren't playing the same game.

[ghaff]

It can be a somewhat different game depending on who you play "with." You probably follow different strategies if your primary strategy is not to lose vs. if you're strategy is to get the best score you can (as my group does). I figure that I will only go for two if I come out of the first guess with a lot of information. But otherwise, I do generally shoot for 3.

[kibibyte]

Personally, I think that’s what makes hard mode interesting, that it creates a sort of meta-game for figuring out a reliable way to avoid these pathological cases.

It likely does mean you’ll have to sacrifice a lower average guess count in favor of avoiding losses.