First of all this seems mostly like a Complain, cause bad post.

1. Would be nice to get an explanation of what where and why, rather than "game hard, i suck" ;)

Jokes aside yes the game can be hard, and it's way to "early access-like" to be called a full release.

(Edit i typed two. but it makes it into a 1.??????)

https://imgur.com/a/X7zkbZX

To be honest, if you want a "down scale" because you are not able to beat a lvl, Git Gud.
You are the kind of person everything will be tuned down to "make it available for the broad mass", taking away all the fun and challenging parts.

If you struggle beating some shit, farm some better gear or look if you can improve your passive tree or stat distribution. If you "can´t invest the time in it" then leave it be, this game is then not meant for you.
The game was on beta for months, with tons of videos about it. So plenty of material to get a feeling about what the game is about.
The game is neither hardcore nor softcore, with a little bit of time investment you can farm urself gear which you never will swap out.

I figured out the easiest way to level is going on expeditions since they grant production as well

This game is realy not To hard, go on YT search for Zdps Quin69 mems, then go back to Yours build and look for things that You F@#$ted up, look on Your gear and find what type of damage You are doing, then open skills and look for skills that mach damage type and playstyle that You are looking for, mach everything together and after that You will come back and say "I'msorry".

From my understanding, mandates are supposed to be easier than expeditions right?

If that's the case, the OP is completely correct.

yeah, it started 2 patches ago, normally i can kill everything, except elite with dual guns, but now i get one shotted by champions, and have to use my turrets.
And its allot easier in expedition then mandate now.