When I played the Witcher, I had scaling on. That kept the challenge up, for sure, but at some point I ran into a quest where I had to survive an attack from rats in the sewers. That quest literally wasn't doable because the rats were the same level as me rather than the level 1 they were supposed to be.
I got hit by that, too! Level scaling was optional in Witcher 3, actually. (And the only way around that fight was to turn it OFF, then turn it back on later in the fight.)
I also agree with OP, what's hte point of achievement if it doesn't get easier to beat enemies?
The same reason you want to gain levels in a static one? New, more interesting enemies?
The second game I think about when scaling is TES5: Skyrim over Oblivion. I've modded that game till it broke, but I'm pretty sure it's vanilla that when you grow stronger, more of the draugr would turn into restless draugr, and then up a notch more. I'm not too sure about this though, it's also possible the strenght of the draugr was just based on dungeon level.
I do find Skyrim a bit confusing, because it's technically open world, and you can go anywhere from very early on, but there certainly are areas where the enemy outscale you and you have to increase your level in order to fight them (especially giants come to mind here).
Skyrim had level scaling, but not as much as in Oblivion. In Oblivion, you could go any direction you wanted. In Skyrim, you could go any direction you wanted EXCEPT for going up. When you head up those mountains, things get harder until you can get some levels under your belt.
Giants weren't really an issue. They were killers for low level characters, but they were also super slow and not all that aggressive, either, unless you were mean to them.
The last game I think about when scaling, and I think that this is a very interesting one, is Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. The enemies in the games itself don't scale, the very first orc you fight is just as strong as the last one, but captains keep getting stronger during the game, based on your actions, and your deaths.
Personally I found Shadow of Mordor alot of fun because all the skills you get, which makes fightinng later on more of a show rather than a challenge, but the fact that you missed a challenge (other than the occasional strong Captain) could make the game boring.
I just got done playing Shadow of War! There's another incentive to level in Shadow of War, though: letting you recruit that orc captain that's just a little above your level. Of course, by gaining those levels, the captains you recruited earlier start to fall behind, so you might need to do something to try and improve them....
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