If suggested quest levels count as "hand holding" and "dumbing down", then so do all the tutorials, the herbs showing on the mini-map, the quest markers and the trail indicator that shows you the path to the marker, and basically everything else that's there to make sure you can focus on the actual challenge of the game and not a frustrating lack of information. Suggested levels for quests in a non-linear open world game is just good design. The difference between challenge and frustration is that challenge is caused by a lack of skill in the player, whereas frustration is caused by a lack of skill in the game designer. No matter how skilled you are, you're not gonna kill a lvl 33 monster when you're level 4. That's frustration, not challenge. Removing the suggestion does not add anything positive to the game experience.