Focus Mode is "Required", like Clutch Claw is "Required"
Will Focus Mode become the new Clutch Claw?
In an interview with IGN, Tokuda-san mentioned that the theshold for flinches and the monster's health would be increased. In his explanation why, he mentioned that part of the purpose of Focus Mode was to shorten the quests. So they realized that Focus Mode was too effective, so they increased the monster's health and flinch threshold.
This is the same thing that happened in Iceborne with Clutch Claw. "You don't have to use it", but it does shorten the quests when you do.
Capcom gathered data from the beta test and found that the Focus attacks were more powerful than they expected. They found that some weapon's Focus attacks were more powerful than other weapons and will balance those too.
This reminds me of Slicing Ammo when World first dropped. It made many quests trivial, so Capcom "balanced" Slicing Ammo to death, from "too powerful" to "why bother". Let's hope that doesn't happen with the Focus Mode for your favorite weapon. I hope they find a nice middle ground.
