I find personally that the lack of fast travel keeps those weaker mobs as something to be wary of a bit longer than I would expect. I went out for a quest it took practically an entire day/night cycle to complete and I was low on health and healing items and pretty much treated them with nearly same caution as the higher level monsters. The gap between player level and the level of the monsters is closed quite a bit if you had some tough and drawn out battles during your quest. I really feel the pressure lift off of me when I finally make it back to a safe zone with a place to rest and resupply.