Same experience. I found leaving difficulty on normal but turning down enemy health (or turning up your damage I can’t remember which) made a huge difference. I beat the game a couple of times like that. Before I found out about that option I had given up my first playthrough toward the end because of the combat and spongy enemies.
He was using pirated official Nintendo 64 development kit software to build the game, so I mean yeah it kind of did…
To be totally clear I don’t support Nintendo in this decision and it’s a shame it couldn’t be continued but it wasn’t like he was using the available open source toolchain, he was using Nintendo software so at least they had a leg to stand on legally
Also if memory serves Nintendo never even took it down, they just told Valve (who actively reached out to Nintendo) that they couldn’t release it and the developer took it upon himself to stop the project after not receiving Valve’s blessing.