What am I missing - why are the hard subs bad? (unless you speak Japanese I suppose? )
*Has no idea/doesn't care wtf a "hard sub" is.*
AFAIK, a "hard sub" is just a subtitle that you can't turn off. And since I couldn't understand the Japanese audio I'd never WANT to turn English subs off when the Japanese audio is on. Which is where my confusion comes in.
But honestly, I turn subtitles on on *everything* - games, movies, TV, the works. A good friend got me in the habit years ago, he has a really bad hearing problem out of one ear and needs them to follow what's going on. And once I got used to them, it bugs me when they're not on. I've gotten my wife used to them too, so she's the same way. You really get into the habit of glancing down at them when something is said that you can't quite make out, so it becomes annoying when they're not there.
Game audio balance is almost always out of whack anyway. Sometimes they let you adjust, which is the first thing I do - music down to about 50%, sound effects to around 80% & voices at 100% - otherwise the voices get drowned out.