So surely it would be more realistic if stuff did happen after you clear areas? For istance, why would it be unrealistic if say you clear a dungeon of demons and afterwards a small group of bandits seize the opportunity to set up camp there? Or would it be unrealistic if travelling traders start to populate the roads as they are now safer? Or even random encounters of champions having a skirnish with some form of pest/beast (there are few in this, but only 3 I've found).
There are multiple things that the game could have done, but some of them such as having a different group of enemies occupying a camp are certainly on the "if I have extra time" list. For instance why not have 20 unique lines per NPC, 10 towns, and 100 dungeons. I think the amount of content in MMOs added to the richness of big budget single player RPGs has spoiled most gamers. There simply insufficient resources to implement every little thing. Personally, I think for the most part they focused their resources in the right areas.
To address the realism issue, have you completely the FoV portion of the game? There are respawns in areas where appropriate. A bit of faux realism. The respawns also stop upon completion of certain objectives. Also "realistic." But having bands of friendly NPCs battle enemies throughout the game is unnecessary. It occurs often enough through quests to discourage constant hack and slash gameplay and non-interactive visual elements.
Personally I found the issue to be balance. Gameplay is distributed into discrete stages; since the game evolves (more below) its difficult for me to determine whether this is intentional. The middle stage of the game, Orobas Fjords, has the most repetitive fighting elements, with the final portion (FoV) consisting primarily of adventure style puzzle quests. The distinct separation of elements can make it seem like certain features are missing from the game. If you've played your share of quality MMOs you may realize the gameplay is very consistent throughout the entire game. With div 2, the distinct stages are refreshing, but also understandably undesirable by certain players. What may also be of interest from a design standpoint is the game's evolution as the player progresses. The game becomes more refined as the developers implement additional features; for example: NPCs finally address the sex of your player in FoV. Again, this progression may not be desirable during gameplay, but it also shows the level of dedication the developers put into improving the game.
