It's good to start the round off with a half-par hole, to encourage more matches to begin with a won hole.
It's really terrible to open with a half par hole, whether reachable par 4 or 5, from the pace of play standpoint. Generally, we want a mid to long par 4, so if a player partly muffs his tee shot, he can play away immediately, because his max distance will still be short of the green. A true three shot par 5 (by mere mortals at least) serves the same function. But a short hole, where people have to wait to putt out to hit the drive on a par 4 or second shot on a par 5 just sets back completion of the first hole, and thus, pace of play for the entire day.
That does sort of lead to perhaps making features a bit easier, for similar reasons and to compensate for the first hole being one of the longer ones. Generally, I use grass hazards front right of the green as one tool. Placing more fw hazards left, etc. also helps. Of course, I am designing mostly public courses where these things are more important.