I just cherry-picked a simple example to make a clear illustration, but … > running a few more algorithms on something before trying to decrypt will make it ea

I just cherry-picked a simple example to make a clear illustration, but … > running a few more algorithms on something before trying to decrypt will make it easier rather than harder to decrypt? No, it could make it easier, harder, or about the same. The ‘harder’ case is just unlikely when the algorithms one started with were already state-of-the-art and the programmer didn't know what they were doing. It might seem tempting to think that a cryptanalyst now has to do twice the work, but what they're really doing isn't cracking multiple encryptions — they're just attacking a different encryption.