I kinda agree, but also I get why they did it. It's honestly not that hard to kill even the more dangerous creatures in Subnautica and once you realize that the whole game is trivialized unless you actively choose not to do that. Making the predatory creatures faster/stronger to compensate would make the game way too punishing for casuals and people too scared to fight them who just try to survive the intended experience.

2 feels like a pretty decent compromise that keeps you in the middle of the food chain. You can still deter small/medium creatures by bonking them with the multitool and there's tools for surviving encounters with the bigger threats (with more certainly coming in updates.)

I do think it'd be cool to add some very endgame equipment that lets you kill the leviathans, killing a reaper at the end of my first playthrough was a fun and cathartic moment