Doesn't appear like it's going to work that way.

The difference was that in MW, it could be either incredibly easy or extremely difficult, depending on when you did things. Try clearing out the old Dunmer Fortresses below Level 5. It's "possible" without abusing alchemy or other "gamebreakers", but no simple task. I've cleared several at L3-4, but not without reloads; the others are harder. Go in at Level 30 though, and you might as well not bother wearing armor, because you're unlikely to ever be in any danger. YOU determine the level of difficulty of the overall game by how you play.

In Oblivion, the fact that it all adjusted to you meant that it didn't matter when you did it, only whether you levelled your character "efficiently" or not. I found the game boring once the initial "glamour" wore off, including the combat after some initial fumbling while I figured out how it worked. One character took the "obvious" skills as Majors, and quickly found himself incapable of fighting anything even remotely threatening, so I had to restart. The second character was more "metagamed", with "Major skills as Minors", and quickly outpaced any challenge. I deleted that character as well, and had to make a third, and balance combat and non-combat tasks and skill advances to maintain a reasonable challenge level. Controlling character advancement was more work than fun, and I eventually retired the game to the "bottom drawer" after suffering through the remainder of the "NO! Not ANOTHER Oblivion Gate!" MQ. MW still sits prominently next to the PC.

Morrowind allowed you to "live the character" (especially in the "sweet spot" of levels 5-12 where you're powerful enough to go almost anywhere, but still might not survive it), whereas OB gave you a longer-lasting set of combat "challenges" at any level. Whether you preferred one or the other depended mainly on how you played the game. I found MW far superior as a RPG, while OB was a much better "FPS encounter generator" for basic hack&slash play.

What we're going to get in Skyrim is still unknown. I just hope it isn't another "FPS encounter generator" with a few "streamlined" RPG elements that are designed so not to get in the way of FPS combat.