Yeah, the automatic defenses of the druid grove reminds me a lot of this, but I remember that experience less negatively because last time I went there, I was able to outrange the towers and knock them down... so it's tedious, but not as bad as this one.
As they are currently implemented - the arcane turrets are definitely a combat encounter - they give you a whooping 50 XP each (and sure you might hit the cap in the EA, but that's not the case for the main game).
Sneaking/running by them is definitely viable, as are the sussur flowers (good to know, though I'd argue having to grab the petals and dealing with the inventory system is even worst), but there was never any challenge in the first place. You can also just jump pass most of them with the Jump spell + Feather fall to get to the generator if you wanted to avoid the encounter all together.
Fundamentally, the problem here is that the encounter itself is unfun, and forcing the player to avoid the fight to avoid tedium is really not a good solution.
It's okay to have some paths be harder / more rewarding than others - but all of them should be fundamentally enjoyable to playthrough. That's just good game-design for a game so focused on providing player freedoms and various paths to success.
