I only own a classical and an electric guitar and because I always wanted to play more rock, country songs etc on the classical one, I decided a while back that I will put steel strings on it. Ones that are of course meant to be put on classical ones. But I found that it is pretty hard to play barre-chords cleanly. At first i thought that it is because I didn't play for a long time but now i regularly play for at least 2 month and I believe to have the technique and finger strength again to play them cleanly but it is really really hard and needs an immense amount of finger push which tires me easily. Otherwise it sounds a bit sloppy.
Is there a fundamental difference between a classical and a western guitar that makes the classical one harder to play cleanly with steel strings. Because I found that on my girlfriends classical one with regular nylon strings those barre-chords are WAY easier to play.
TL;DR: Is it harder to play clean barre-chords on a classical guitar with steel strings than on a western one, and if yes, why is that?