It's a cut above the rest of the series for sure, with normal feeling nearly on par with the lunatics of other games in my opinion. However, fundamentally I think it's just as well designed as the rest of the series - just a lot harder. For what it's worth, in-story the opponents are canonically far stronger than your average Touhou fare, which explains why this game in particular is so hard.
However, remember that the main gimmick of this game is pointdevice mode, a game mode that gives you checkpoints and infinite tries. I think ZUN designed the game with this in mind, with legacy mode being the more normal mode for those who want to ignore it/already feel confident after having learned the game. If you so desire, keep on trying this game on your Touhou journey and see how you improve.