Unfortunately this leads to high-level characters and creatures feeling a lot less, well, "epic" when you compare them in battle to low-level peons or mid-level threats. I wonder how many, say,
Gladiators or
Guards it would take to have a 50-50 chance of beating a
Kraken in 5E? A creature which, remember has a Challenge of 23, which is way higher than the CR 12 of a 3E
Kraken. There doesn't seem to be a close correlation between Challenge/Level/CRs of monsters between editions in the more recent versions of D&D.
To my mind an 8th level martial character should not be considered equivalent to some elite town guard or SEAL team member (who ought to be 4th level or so at most - i.e. "hero-level") but to Conan or Rambo. They are larger than life figures who can slay giant carnivorous snakes or killer apes while nearly naked and armed only with a dagger!