Hoo boy, I shouldn't have stirred up this old hornets' nest, LOL. I've heard all these pro-scaling arguments before and still (and will probably always) strongly disagree with them for reasons I don't have the energy to rehash/further develop here, so I'm just going to agree to disagree. It's all moot for D:OS anyway, thanks to the good folks at Larian choosing a development path that allows players to attempt (and in my case, at least) beat opponents who are (gasp) actually not at my same level, whenever I feel the need to try.

So back to the current beta difficulty - now the hotfix has allowed me to explore around the NE area without CTDs, I really had fun with the
mini-bomber ambush.
I guess it wasn't too difficult the second time around, but
watching all 19 of the little buggers 'splode from a well-placed fireball
was a good time. Well done, Larian.