Ah, that explains something I have been confused by for a while now without really understanding why.

I'm learning German, and one of the apps I'm using is Clozemaster, where a sentence is missing a word and I have to fill in the gap. The easy mode is to choose from a list of four, the hard mode is to type in the word. Easy mode I can do fairly reliably without even fully reading the sentences, hard mode I struggle with — while the latter is partly because it only accepts one single specific word (so if the sentence would be valid with another word, e.g. weiß/blau/gold/schwarz, keine Punkte für mich if I pick the wrong correct answer), that alone didn't feel sufficient given the subjective experience of the difference between them.

I think, from what you've said, in the easy mode I'm probably picking up on things that aren't as useful as I need.