Sure they're super easy, and devs would need to seperate the true newbie missions from the same vet ones.
But seeing how I'll never get gold elite badges on them and being a vet after the fact locks me from fixing that seems like a waste of resources to me.
We won't ever be able to go back and blast Razwog's face or the Ironwood Sentinel on super duper elite mode; sure you can create a new account, but it's not like you'll keep it in the face of a main account with all your good gear.
Sorta related:
New players don't know what it's like to defend Rescue camp with just a proto bomb mission.
Proto bombs are given out as a last minute reminder before reaching haven in a place without enemies...
MFW picking our battle sprite is locked forever and the introduction of mission difficulty auto selected "advanced" instead of "elite". My OCD can't handle it (it can but I don't like it).
I do agree with the some missions showing bronze/silver instead of gold completion medal. The HoH rank up missions are all set to bronze as well.