What server are you playing on? Maybe it's because I'm fairly new (and on a low pop server) but it is very hard. Even folks who've been around tell me it's hard and that it wasn't as hard as it is right now when they started.
Hell, the bears 1-shot you (even with tactical gear), the wolves are nearly as dangerous (3-4 bites), there are so many zombies in a small area it is impossible to not attract 20-30 by doing the simplest of tasks (which, unless I run to someone's abandoned base, is almost always a death sentence) and, if that weren't enough, they can walk through walls -- even major building walls! It is bad enough trying to get inside of a building before 20 of them kill you but then once you're inside -- oh, no worry, magically they'll come in and attack. Either you're doing something no one else I've played with has figured out, or there is some sort of a disconnect between what we're experiencing.
And they need to majorly nerf the number of zombies. And why on earth do they follow so far? I had 37 -- yes, I counted -- last night follow me from the Mines in the far southwest (along the roads) all the way to Ranchito in the far northeast. That is ridiculous. They're in huge globs everywhere. Nothing I should be able to do should attract that many. And after a zone or so they should drop off. If I couldn't make arrows so easily, I'd be stuck going up the street from where I hang out. And the bears need to be knocked down a few, too. Seeing a bear shouldn't automatically be a death sentence. I've been hunting since I was a kid: you shoot a bear in the head with a gun IRL, and it fucking dies! Instantly. It takes 4 shotgun shots TO THE HEAD in the game to kill a bear -- WHY?!?! That's just idiotic. I lose all of my shit because I got 30 yards from a bear? Give me a break. I play with 5 people, and tonight they died so many times from being 1-shot by a bears they spent most of the time trying to get their stuff before it disappeared. And the bears are nearly as numerous as the wolves -- every 200 yards or so, just wandering about. Zombies every 20-50 yards, fewer near the roads.