Honestly adaptive difficulty has basically the inverse issue of fucking with shit when I don't want it. But there is a subtype of it that I do like, that being thingd like the narrative AI in the Dead Space remake which can do really neat shit to fuck with the player and keep them on their toes. Though for me it just made everything foggy especially that one level where it's just a bunch of cat walks which I'm pretty sure is already a low light area, seriously I couldn't see shit and kept getting lost in what amounted to a five foot area.

But yeah doing that for a skilled based game like Mortal Kombat seems... cheap. Like maybe I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure there is a difficulty setting in MK which if that is the case that means the game decides to stop the player of their agency and accomplishment rather than let them learn the boss. Not to say you can't do adaptive difficulty but as a general rule there's a good reason it's so rare, sometimes it's just fine but I rarely see it.

The game taking into account the players actions and effecting the game though to counter that is fun IMO. Like how high casualty runs in Dishonored make the game noticable harder since difficulty only really effects health, enemy, numbers, and detection rate also it serves the narrative of the story well. Also Adam Smasher tayloring his gear to counter the player which can be subverted to catch him off guard rewarding the player for knowing the world. Or the aformentioned Dead Space narrative AI which apparently decided I'm gonna play Dead Space after the crew of the USG Ishimura had a ship wide Silent Hill themed party.