The options exist because all modes of play are legitimate. You don't need to confess that any more than you need to confess that sometimes you eat food.

I tend to play easier settings too, with lots of mods. One of those mods lets me use the coms console to insult other factions and get them to send a raid, so I still get plenty of fighting in. But it's honestly a coin toss when a mech cluster drops in whether I'm going to actually deal with it legitimately or just grumble about how I can't be arsed and nuke it from orbit.