yeah, character progression is a bit off in the late game, but the PB worlds are so big with so many little hidey holes and secret loot, well….. by late game I feel kind of entitled to the goodies I find after 100 plus play hours
True, it hasn't been a big problem in past games.
Risen 3 and Elex are the only PB games I remember being particularly bad in this way - but I honestly don't know if I've just been unlucky in picking the most powerful route - or they changed their design philosophy in some way.
Still, it shouldn't be possible to destroy everything with total ease at the mid-game stage on harder difficulties - in my opinion. Late game, sure, but not before then.
That said, I've always loved their games - and while Elex was something of an exception for me - I'm very keen on seeing their approach to a sequel.
Also, to be fair, I don't actually know of any huge open world game that nails balance. Some of the shorters ones do a decent job of it, like Witcher 2 and the original Gothic - but they're not huge to my mind.
You can achieve a reasonably balanced experience with Skyrim if you add enough mods and tweak stuff - and I think Fallout 4 Survival came the closest to a decently balanced experience considering the ridiculous size of the world.
I would really like to see developers, in general, evolve their designs and mechanics to provide a more fully realised challenge level. But, since most of them insist on having difficulty levels - that's a very hard thing to achieve.