To me Silksong difficulty starts about as hard as Hollow Knight end game and keeps getting harder: The pogo you mentioned, two mask hits in the first couple hours, boss difficulty early in act 1. I played Moorwing on release and it was harder than my first encounter with Mantis Traitor, a late, optional boss in HK and the first time I encountered two mask hits.
It started its life as DLC and feels like it.
Fair enough. I thought act 1 felt like DLC at least. You know how sequels will often reset the difficulty at the beginning? DLC will often be harder than the main campaign because those who’ll play it likely already mastered the main game. Act 1 felt like it belonged in late game HK to me, and the game only gets harder from there.