I saw this game on speedrun.com and saw that there wasn't any runs of it. I thought to myself "Alright! Seems like a fun idea, I can get any time and become the 1st place world record holder for a game!" But this game is honestly the WORST I've ever played. The reason nobody plays is not only because of the tiny view, but they screwed up the controls so bad. If you play Super Mario Bros. on the NES and see this expecting it to be an identical port or something, its much worse. Stay away from this game, I know I will. I spent 17 mins on this game and still couldn't get pass 8-2 with warps. Another thing that bugs me is the hitboxs, they fixed them and now you can't jump over the 'snakes'. Well that was enough of a rant, but the point is this game is BAD.
It's a pretty amazing game, but I agree it is much more punishing than the original, and also agree that that's a negative for it. The other modes it contains are definitely deserving of runs, though. Challenge mode is very interesting in a routing sense, You vs. Boo is great for ILs, and the general challenge of unlocking stuff in the Album are so enticing.
But ultimately, your statement that this is the reason there are next to no runs is probably accurate. It's a big turn-off if you're expecting Mario 1 or 2J.
The thing that really pissed me off about the game in general is that they removed Worlds 9 to D from the Lost Levels.
And they fixed the double jumping glitch when you grab an powerup whilst falling.
