Yup. You are very right!
Actually fault doesn't seem to lie with the Yokohama tires, otherwise, they will have a bad repute worldwide. Faults and problems lie with our pathetic roads, where broken glass, nails, potholes, 2-3" high studs, "Sarya" (Yes! And I really mean it!) and other such bad stuff suddenly comes out of nowhere. I believe bad studs, potholes, etc. Are not there in well developed countries, (at least frequently), that's why tires do not fail there that easily.
To me hard tires are those in which tread and side wall is overstrengthened like General Pk tires, so as to cater for these things. Such tires will be less prone to puncture, however, they will be noisy, highly uncomfortable and hard, with little to no drive pleasure.
Soft tires provide extremely good comfort and are almost noiseless, but at the same time, other issues are there.
That's my point of view about hard and soft tires.