The eternal struggle
(media.scored.co)
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Funny, cause what you just said is exactly what difficulty by number is. It's not just about levels and gears stats.
You can quantittize anything and everything, but a change in the rate of flow of time is not what people would consider numbers. The enemies don't get more HP or higher attack or faster attack speed comparable to your own, everything just happens faster taxing a human player's multi-tasking and strategy given their skill's limited amount of APM.
Another good example would be a fighting game where the difficulty is altered by changing the amount of time between when the AI performs combos. The enemy doesn't get more HP or higher attack or faster attack speed comparable to your own. Sure, you could consider that in built "stagger time" a number too, but everything that would stay the same against a human opponent instead stays the same.
Absolutely don't care about "what people would consider". People still don't understand what AAA or Indie games mean, or the difference between a remake and a remaster. Because the number is hidden, doesn't mean it's not a number.
No, you can't quantitize everything. A game mechanic is made of numbers, but by itself, is not a number or even a math concept at all.
Take Pacman, and every level, it gets 5% faster (for everyone). This is easily measurable, even if the game doesn't show you the value.
Take Pacman, and each level, you introduce a different level design elements (like one-way passages, portals, boosts or slow-downs, or "pacgums" for the ghosts that will power them up instead of Pacman). Those mechanics do have numbers with them sure, but adding them to the game doesn't constitute an increas by number. You can't really tell how much harder the game got if you suddenly have one-way passages, contrary to a flat 5% speed increase.