I'm still pretty early in the game but so far I agree that a higher difficulty setting is needed. I'd much rather see it achieved with mechanics than more mobs and higher numbers (although more HP is clearly needed, especially for boss fights). Mobs need to make more intelligent use of spells and abilities. At least the simple combos players use like hold person into free crit smites, proper focus fire, just generally getting value out of their actions instead of flailing around like fools.

The hag behaves pretty sensibly if you let her live a few rounds. She genuinely tries to fight back. Most other encounters I've been in don't feel like that.