Do you have a specific reason why you don't want to see a mandatory battle (or two) taking place inside Cyseal, provided it's written in in a way that makes sense?
It seems like a solution to a non-existent problem. The game already lets you follow the main quest or not at your leisure. If you get bored, feel free to wander off. Nothing's stopping you but you.
You must talk to Aureus as part of the main quest, and he offers three quest hooks that lead you to combat (granted two are higher level than you can handle). Following the main quest more, you're interrupted by a Fab Five member, who offers you another quest that sends you to combat (although that's even worse for a new guy).
And that's why the option of "following the main quest or not at your leisure" is not as cut and dry a solution as you're making it out to be.
First, just because someone wants to follow the main quest line doesn't automatically mean they're excited about the prospect of not seeing any combat for an hour or three. It shouldn't be a one-or-the-other consequence. A player should be able to play the main quest line
and also enjoy combat (fed at a reasonable pace) while doing it. In other words, you shouldn't have to abandon the story and run out of town to enjoy some turn-based tactics.
Second, our characters are barely level 2 when they reach Cyseal, but they can reach level 3 (through questing) by the time the main plot has advanced to the point where it sends them out of town. Meanwhile, the opponents waiting outside of Cyseal start at level 3 (or higher, depending on the gate you choose). The henchman you can pick up in Cyseal are level 3, and unless you're just randomly exploring the town (or know where they are through prior playthroughs), you probably won't meet both of them until you've spent a fair amount of time questing in Cyseal.
In short, despite the option to run off in any random direction at any point, the aim seems to be to get the player to level 3 before they leave Cyseal. That requires spending time in town, time that is boring at least some players who would probably appreciate a combat encounter or two peppered into Cyseal to break up both the dialogue and repetitive running back and forth between NPCs to advance the plot - two components that are going to get less enjoyable with each new playthrough, by the way.
