I assume the crown and heat drop rates would remain how they currently are in that case, meaning advanced difficulty would be the new "normal" for those who want a little bit of everything? Elite would be a crown earner's game, where they can use crowns to purchase everything anyways. Perhaps something like materials dropping more frequently on elite than advanced would make it a "rarity VS resources" choice which would be great for balancing the current situation.

As such, perhaps it would look something more like this:

Normal = More sparks, same fire crystals and orbs, less crowns and materials, more heat.
Advanced = Normal sparks, crystals, orbs, normal crowns and materials, normal heat. Special rewards that are dropped via RNG.
Elite = Halved sparks, less fire crystals, less orbs, more crowns and materials, less heat. Special rewards that are dropped after X amount of progress, as well as RNG.

On top of that:
Normal = enemies attack less frequently (aggro on you but have slightly longer times between attacks), have less health. Players have significant base defense
Advanced = enemies attack at current speeds, have original health values. Players have moderate base defense.
Elite = enemies attack slightly faster, have more health. Enemies gain "energy surge" variants which grant them unique behaviors, such as MSI, increased damage, increased defense, blast-cube-esk explosion on death, etc. Enemies also gain the ability to use consumables randomly, not always specific to the level theme! Players have no base defense.

And bam, elite is harder but is different from the other modes in terms of legit difficulty. Normal is the best place to make progress, however the worst place to become wealthy - elite is the best place to become wealthy, but the hardest to make progress in. Advanced is that sweet spot in the middle where you just enjoy the game while getting a bit of everything.