Were the endemic diseases just less severe?
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This is kind of a myth.
There is [a whole section of the /r/askhistorians FAQ](https://np.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/nativeamerican#wiki_disease_in_the_americas) on Disease in the Americas.
The simple answer is that both parts of your question aren’t entirely right. The Europeans did bring diseases to North America, but it wasn’t the diseases *alone* which caused so much devastation in the North American native population. It was the new diseases on top of violence, starvation, being driven from their lands and homes, and generally not having access to the resources they needed to maintain a healthy population. If it was just the new diseases the Native American populations probably would have bounced back and been fine – it was all those things on top of each other that caused population problems.
Kind of like the difference between being sick (say with a cold) and being able to take a few days off, curl up in bed, with someone to provide you with food and generally care for you, with being sick when stuck outside without shelter, with no food and limited water, and possibly being chased by someone who wants to kill you for existing. You’re going to have a much harder time getting better.
Similarly there absolutely were diseases in the Native American populations that caused serious problems for the European colonists, and some were brought back to Europe and caused devastation there. Tuberculosis has been the most deadly infectious disease to humans pretty consistently for centuries, and it was introduced to Europe from North America. Syphilis is also a major infectious disease that was spread from North America to Europe by European colonists.
There were plenty of European colonies that suffered very high fatality rates due to diseases – some collapsing completely. There were just always more people from Europe willing to come over (or to be brought over by force).
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