cvv
Arcane
In MM6-8, you'll often find massive mobs of high level enemies on certain maps, but if you've got the fly spell, you can easily pass over them, drop right in front of a chest and collect an awesome reward early on.
Believe it or not, there are people - for example me - who consider that sort of thing neither desirable nor fun design. Juking your way past an Elder Dragon guarding a Big Sword of Buttrape early on and then melting mobs for half the game without breaking a sweat is a surefire way to ruin a good game. It's no better than buying the Dragon Armor DLC in Dragon Age and then being an invincible mofo for the next dozen hours.
As for the MMX mention, I gotta admit, I never understood that "myiaaa, I'm railroaded" complaint. The point of playing an RPG is the joy of progression. And as far as I know, and I've been playing RPGs since 1993, there are only two ways of making it work in a non-linear game - either have a completely open world from the start but then the element of progression is achieved through level scaling - that would be Skyrim and its ilk for example. Or have more or less contrived "checkpoints" throughout the world that you unlock as you level up, either in the form of guardian mobs or some other mechanics like the flower field in the beginning of W7 or the blocked bridge in MMX. Personally I much prefer the second alternative, although there are games that do level scaling well, W7 being the prime example.