I urge you to try normally first. Most of the X games aren't that hard in my opinion, especially if you follow an easier progression of stages.
That said options are great!
Someone was saying on the Steam boards that MMX3 PC had a hard mode in its original release. Hopefully they offer that too.
I have tried them all on normal but to no avail, i am ass at these kinda games and would rather not sink the amount of time into them to get good just for the one series in this genre that interests me, when I could just play it on easy, have my fun and move on
Whatever works for you. I can advise to change dash to R1/right shoulder immediately. It is more comfortable to use and way easier to do so effectively like that in my opinion.