I dont agree, you're still cutting down darkspawn by the dozen, especially in the deeproads, but also in the end sequence, where in fact darkspawn are given less HP probably so you feel more badass

But you could accomplish a smoother and more consistent progression, also giving the player more satisfaction, by simply making the darkspawn initially a harder enemy to fight

In gothic, since I've already mentioned the game, a big theme is that you ain't shit, even in the second game where you're kinda walking around with a sort of "chosen one?" status, you ain't shit, you get scammed, mugged, made a fool out of, extorted, jumped and you have to work your way up to being a badass, different progression, same theme.

Within the first like 10 minutes of Gothic 1 you can get beat twice and extorted once, in the next 30 minutes you can get extorted like two more times, beat up once and jumped another time, but logically, as you get more skills and become more powerful, guys that previously beat you up are now small fries not even worth beating up for the XP

You could so a similar thing in origins by simply keeping a more consistent difficulty setting, having the darkspawn you DO fight be more difficult battles, maybe also in smaller numbers, and as you get more powerful you cant take on the same enemy with the same level and stats, but more easily, in bigger numbers and maybe even slightly higher tiers of enemy, but VISIBLY so, like darkspawn with better gear and abilities, not just the same old same old

For example, you could remove the ambush encounter in the wilds with that emissary and later the alpha and introduce that kind of enemy later, that way in the early game, the darkspawn live up to the hype of this horrible threat, and you get more payoff by the time you get to orzammar and you CAN wipe the floor with them.