I played since Wasteland. You could wander off track at almost any point and get absolutely slaughtered by huge high-level enemies.

It's part of the universe.

Part of the fun is that, yes, while running into an enemy WAY too hard for you, with proper tactics you MIGHT beat them. And acquire a high-level piece of gear that might make your whole life easy. Then run-n-gun your way through massive amounts of low level enemies.

That is precisely the best case scenario of a single player RPG.

Myself, I have 39 hours in on my first run, and haven't even hit the Strip. I think I have at least another 15 hours of quests to explore before I bother hitting the Strip. And I don't mind. I want to soak up every bit of this experience, as long as it stays in character for my guy.
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There are quests that I will absolutely skip until I play again with another character with his/her own attitude.

I'll probably only do 2 companion quests on my first go, then do the ones that make sense with other characters.

If you feel "forced" in the first 5 hours or so, think of how many ways you could replay those same 5 hours with another character, and realize that there is nothing even [censored] mildly linear about this game.
Hugz