The old style was that level was used to direct a player to or away from certain areas and to provide a broad direction. Too weak? Go somewhere else, get some levels and gear and come back. It's easy to understand.
Somewhere along the line studios decided this wasn't enough freedom or it was simply too hard to get the levels right that they gave up and just made everything scale to your level. So really there's no point in gaining levels. In fact, it can actually hurt you if you level ineffectively. So this robs the player of the reward of progression and removes player agency.
Breath of the Wild broke the mold (or returned to the old model depending on your POV) and gave you open world without scaling content. You can complete the game with 3 hearts and base gear if you really want to. The speed runs of BotW are amazing. Or if you want to play less sweaty you can take the scenic route.
I'm honestly surprised there haven't been more copies of this wildly successful formula. I feel like Elden Ring is really the first to try (and succeed). That's how you have to look at it though: boss too hard? Go somewhere else, get stronger and come back. You're essentially choosing your level of difficulty.
People who ask for an easy mode are missing the point entirely. They're asking for a content conveyor belt with no player agency, essentially. Game companies need to stop listening to these people. They're just wrong.
This is a massive mistake game companies make: trying to market their games to people who don't like them at the expense of people who do.