The seeker changes were to give less prepared players a fighting, or fleeing chance. It's a fine line to balance between challenging players and frustrating players. The game in its current state has elements with combat they seem to be incapable of fixing, especially when elevation comes into play. It's certainly on the "frustrating" side of the equation when you pretty much need to use a sledgehammer or a bow in a fight because even slight elevation differences can result in whiffs or terrain hits with other weapons that might be otherwise be better or more interesting choices. I mean Leeches in the swamps are just a PitA, not because they're too tough or anything, just you end up standing on shore staring at each other. The only weapons that work against them (without getting into the water and getting poisoned) is a sledge or a bow. Spear? Polearm? Should be a given, but nope. Whiff.

The other aspect that the game developers need to cater for is that a fair number of players choose to rush objectives. A new biome? They want to see it/clear it as early as possible. Where they might intend for players to be equipped to a certain degree, the reality is that a good number of players will expect to clear the game relying on iFrames and cheese, so when something new doesn't subscribe to the same cheese it's "broken".