...... Not as bad as Oblivion, but hardly much better.
Oh please. In Oblivion there was NOTHING that could easily kill you, even by accident, once you were around level 15. In this game you've got Mages who actually can do some damage if you give them half a chance, the Falmer use poisoned weapons that seriously impact your health no matter what, the traps in this game do sometimes catch you off guard, and in many cases, the terrain you are fighting on sometimes can dictate how a fight goes. The enemies you fight also make use of magic and other things that can (if you're not careful) kill you even if you're equipped with some serious stuff. Just recently I had a fairly tough archery duel with 3 bandits who had the advantage.
I'm level 46 fighter/mage, wearing exquisite Blades armor and Ebony war axe, with mostly magicka regen and one-handed attack bonuses. (No, I didn't power level smithing, it's only at about 60 from natural use, and enchanting is only about 70 with few perks selected). I've really spread out my perk choices for various reasons so the only skills that are at or near 100 are heavy armor and one-handed....all through direct combat use.