Well, I can't speak for what's easy or hard for Samira since she's much further into game progression than I am. Personally, I was finding them a nice challenge in a three person group before (62 bard, 61 ranger, 61 druid all in about Velious level gear). Agreed that, in a full group, they're rarely much of a challenge unless you're going in with some strange circumstances (five rogues in a hard DGuk adventure.. heheh) or just a bunch of complete knotheads.
My advice to RJO is to consider doing hards, especially if he's playing with friends (who are less likely to throw a hissy fit if things go sour). Better experience and, really, more fun in a way to fight through whites and yellows than to mow through dark blues. Especially in the lower levels where the dungeons are pretty trivial even without twinking. But, above that my advice is, of course, to just have fun. If you turn out to like normals over hards, go for it