Indeed that's roughly what I've been working to, in terms of the level equation.
I haven't fully geared every enemy, as that's quite a lot of work to do, especially if you have larger campaigns with multiple engagements between various enemies.
But the ones that have loot do use the loot they drop.
One issue I've been having is that the monsters do not keep talents that I assign to them. It may be a conflict issue with one of the mods I'm using. Not sure if anyone else has had that issue.