And this is your opinion, which is certainly valid.
However, in my opinion, balanced choices doesn't make a non-competitive game better. If two choices have the same outcome, then there is no real choice involved, and you are once again playing an eBook or Progress Quest.
And I'm going to repeat what I put in my previous post: There's a specific reason that the Cyseal area / first ten levels of this games were so good upon release. There's your main reason why even a single-player game benefits from balance passes.
And I'd just like to point out that Cyseal was so good because it was
not balanced. You could choose, like I did in my first run, to leave through the north gate at level 3, and have a tough scrap against Rob and his zombies, and then head south and east into the villa, then accidentally trigger the Diedrik encounter, killing the party instantly. Or like my second playthrough, heading out onto the beach toward black cove at level 4, then having a jolly time running an orc battalion over the landmines they had placed. Neither of these choices were better then my third run, during which I took the "proper" route to the Northwest.
The myriad of possibilities of your choice of exit from Cyseal proper made the area fun and interesting - and the choices were far from balanced. Soloing the burning legion in the northeast with my level 4 ranger, after sneaking through Luculla to nab the Heartseeker bow was an interesting challenge, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
TL;DR
While I understand the need for balance in competitive games, when I play a single player game I would like to have actual choice in my gameplay progression. Not everyone wants to play an eBook.
