^I finished TLOU2 recently, and I'm not ashamed to admit I changed the difficulty from 'moderate' to 'very easy' about half-way through the game. I wanted to see the end of the narrative more than "enjoy the challenge of the gameplay", and I'm too ####ing old and busy to "git gud" at games anymore. I started a replay on 'hard' a few weeks ago, and will slowly finish it.
That said, w.r.t. the bloater in the hotel basement: 1) use Molotov cocktails, as they're far more susceptible to damage from fire than from bullets, or 2) just run up the stairs, past all the infected, and use the keycard at the door to exit the area! The latter is how I eventually did it.
