level is exceptionally important and hard to do without.
It is not.
In many cases, level is completely redundant and easily done away with.
The point of leveling is that you have a measurement of the power of the character.
Which is not unique to "Levels".
There's plenty of methods to measure character power without levels. Such as equipment quality (Gearscore), stat points, skill points and basically everything that is normally acquired alongside a "Level" without the actual "Level" itself.
In an open game world, its even less desireable to not have level. It basically means you cannot have progress at all.
That is so laughably untrue.
There are and have been many ways to have progress without levels.
In the DLC for Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, they created progression by way of having your character collect "Scadutree Fragments" something independent of levels that provided progression (Which was implemented as they wanted to create a form of progression irrespective of player levels. So even a "Max Level" character would have to progress through the DLC like a non-max level character). This is on top of the base mechanic of the entire Soulsborne series where "Level" simply means how expensive it is to gain stat points (As well as online matchmaking)
In GTA you progress by acquiring new homes and opening up new locations on the map to be able to acquire better weapons and vehicles.
Many open world games feature some sort of skill points or other forms of character progression from doing certain side activities, which are independent of levels. (For example, Cyberpunk 2077's DLC Phantom Liberty has the Relic points from interacting with Relic Point nodes. It also has Cyberware Capacity which can be obtained through Cyberware Capacity Shards)
Heck, we can even look at something like GW2, where you have Hero Points as a non-level based progression system. In an MMO. As well as Elder Scrolls Online and its Skyshards to gain skill points (ESO also has its Champion Point system. Whereby after Level 50 CP 160 you stop "Levelling" meaning gear, stat and enemy scaling ceases. Your only progression is then through acquiring Champion Points and investing them into the Champion Skill Trees)
It by the way also helps the player. If I can see the level of the opponent, I can know if I should avoid them for now.
Which is again, independent of levels. It's plenty possible to convey enemy threat level without levels. Heck, even with levels you still often have the basic quantifier of colour (Grey = Trivial. White = Equal. Yellow = Slightly tougher. Orange = Fairly strong. Red = Tough. SKULLS = DANGER). Which is again, not reliant on levels.
And games that keep the level of your opponents the same as your own are really bad. They remove all meaning from level.
Which is literally all games.
Either they dynamically scale with you. Or your natural progression means you are constantly facing equally strong enemies. Which is the point as to why levels are redundant when all "Progression" from them is rendered moot when enemies simply scale equally with you.
The only exception is static enemy levels means you can sequence break to encounter easier or tougher enemies. (Or in the case of things like JRPG's, you can grind to artificially inflate your level). Which is usually a minor aspect of the game and not generally the intended way of playing (With again, exceptions. In this case, based on poorly balanced level curves. Such as in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning where you very quickly and easily outlevel zones by just doing their story)
