E.g. the gnolls on the risen road come in 3 packs that you can basically confront in any order, even move on without beating all 3 of them, but come back later for the rest...
I think you’re right, and that’s a very good point. Because of that, it might make sense to skip or abstract some of those smaller, non-essential encounters, so they wouldn’t necessarily be included in the main narrative directly.
Focusing on key story moments and major turning points could already provide a clear and readable version of the player’s journey, without trying to capture every single detail.
Personally, I would definitely prefer to keep the current level of freedom and non-linearity as it is. If needed, some events could be summarized or generalized rather than fully described, so the final narrative remains coherent and easy to follow.
