Not to jump on the bandwagon, but I also agree with Xion on the "execution is flawed" part.
Howeverrr... Better's pretty subjective, and part of the charm of Harvest Moon is its simplicity. The fact that it's pretty hard to permanently fuck up makes the game relaxing. Adding too many features, or making death too easy, would change the nature of the game almost as certainly as removing the town would. Harvest Moon had a dichotomy between time forced to spend on the farm "working," and time exploring the village. Honestly, I think the village was the least fleshed out portion of the game, not the farm. The farm had enough options to keep you occupied for a while making money, but that wasn't the sole purpose of the game - it was also your interaction with the village and its inhabitants.
I think game had a touch of difficulty if you tried to have a pretty good farm explore and be with the townspeople. Though the last time I played was like three years ago.
Man, if I could program properly I'd be on this like a fat kid on chocolate.