Personally, I like having vulnerable NPC's...characters that can be killed, and there are still far too many which are invulnerable in this game. What I really have a problem with are dumb NPC's who try to fight a legendary dragon armed with only an iron dagger and merchants clothes. This type of [censored] just drives me up the wall.

Fast traveling does not "cause" attacks. The attacks happen whether we fast travel or not. I know this because I've never once fast traveled and I get hit by Vampire and Dragon attacks with all of my characters.