Yea people want different settings sometimes, so a standard can be difficult. This is far more basic than a conversation about if you want to play HC or not. Many of the same issues spread far past just HC as well but are just as if not more problematic for creating a HC mode.
If you don't like HC then don't play it, just like I won't play normal mode. That isn't the problem though. I think it is fair to assume that a primary idea of Portal is to allow players to make custom game modes. Hardcore is the most obvious basic custom game mode, so obvious its included in most BF games and most other FPS games even.
Super basic options that you need to make any version of HC are missing. I listed the most crucial ones already but for example, having no ability to implement a TK limit means someone can join the server and just blow away the friendly team ruining the entire game as long as he wants until the ONE admin joins, and you better hope that admin joins the right team since there is no kill feed, no all chat and no ability to add other admins....
A team kill limit are not possible for any HC mode except FFA and TDM since the logic editor isn't available. Many other very important settings I described are also not available... so the whole Portal being able to make a mode how you want isn't really viable even for super basic modes like say hardcore rush or hardcore conquest.
