seems like good design that works with 5es bounded accuracy (even if i hate it)
Usea stronger enemy but only use one.
If youve played infinity engine games or other older CRPG, you never face one of an enemy, or very rareley. Or go wth pathfinder kingmaker.
CR is weird, and the way older games tended to balance encounters is by throwing hordes of level apropriate enemies at you.
So in pathfinder kingmaker youll at the start fight hordes of bandits, and move on to hordes of trolls.
This is more of a classic game way of doing it: fight stronger enemies earlier but dont fight 40 of them but one.
DnD 4e did this by giving each enemy type several stat blocks to represent yougn or injured versions of those enemies so you can use them as bosses for low level parties.
