I like the difficulty of normal, it forced me to find new tactics to deal with enemies. I rolled a full-psi user with all 3 disciplines, and I found certain areas very challenging, which led me to adapt my build to fit in sniper rifles and some throwing skill for various grenades and caltrops. I even had to spend an attribute point on strength in order to use sniper rifles, and had to catch up on Gun skill. I've never had to abuse zone-transitions, and I think zone-transitions are actually detrimental for psi-users, since with the -10 initiative penalty, it's very easy to just get one-shot on zone transitions.
Trying to 'force' a build and not flexibly changing your build is your mistake, imo.