Vote for struggle

It seems to me that the AR, together with him wanting עבודה מכח עצמו also didn't want daily life to be easy, religious life that is. They say in the name of Reb Yekusiel Liepler that he was wont to say;

א מתנגד איז ווי א פארטרעט, ווי היינט ווי נעכטן ווי מארגען
א חסיד איז ווי א ווערימל, קריכט אריין און קריכט ארויס

A Chossid doesn't have it easy, he can't just put it into "auto-pilot" and his live his life for the next 80 years doing the same good thing forever.

That seems to be a fact today, maybe more so now than in previous generations, my question is as follows:

Was there some sort of pre-ordained master plan for Lubavitchers to have it harder in life, and to only reap what to sow? Do their select Neshomos, chosen for Tomchei Tmimim, also come with built-in select Yetzer HoRahs?

I see these Grubbe Baalibatishe people who don't put 5 seconds into their kids' Chinuch, yet they have wonderful, well-behaved children, how come? (This is not a "why do bad things happen to good people" question), yet with Lubavitcher Chassidim it's gotta be all hard work, and even that is never, ever guranteed in today's world, why?

If this was a pre-ordained request of the AR, my question would be; why? Is it to discourage מצות אנשים מלומדה or similar approaches to Yiddishkeit? It seems like the Rabbeyim were of the opinion that MAM is worse than no observance at all (well, not exactly) and that every day needs to be a struggle just to "stay afloat".

There's a lot to add here, hopefully they'll be discussed in the pursuing comments.