I agree with the OP. I think that large creatures such as mammoths and giants (and dragons) should hit you
hard, and that ideally would want to avoid their attacks, even at level 50. Now granted, the PC was on
God Todd Mode, but still, it's disappointing that combat still largely looks like
Oblivion, and not quite like, say
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, or
Demon's Souls. Fighting a regular bandit isn't going to feel all that different from fighting a ten-foot tall multi-limbed monster.
Well if you look at David and Goliath, you would see how that looked even more unrealistic with just a sling and a rock but yet he managed to kill Goliath.
Actually, slings were pretty lethal weapons, and fully capable of punching through the armor of that time.