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The appropriate usage of 'less'

Hello forum

I am a little confused by the usage of 'less' when comparing certain adverbs. To illustrate, let's say,
He works efficiently.

If you are comparing his efficiency now to before, you would say,

He works less efficiently than before. Right?

Let's replace efficiently with hard.

He works hard.
So, he works less hard than before.

I initially found it unnatural to accept hard because normally, we tend to use the form, 'harder' when the adverb precedes than.

But, if we are using poor, I think it would be grammatically correct to say,

The world is less poorer than it was before.

So why do we accept 'poorer' but not 'harder?' Or where am I missing the point?

Thanks in advance!

Re: The appropriate usage of 'less'

"But, if we are using poor, I think it would be grammatically correct to say,

The world is less poorer than it was before. "
No.

The world is less poor than it was before.

(I see for you, the glass is half empty!)