I like both these ideas, but I want to suggest that there is another dimension to the leveling conversation (and there are no mods that really get at these issues): What leveling does, and the scale at which it does it. Leveling is boring is Skyrim because, .byand large, the only thing that changes as you level is numbers: Enemies do more damage. You do more damage. They have more health. You have more health. More stamina, more carry weight. Most perks just give you a number buff but do not meaningfully changing gameplay. There are only two exceptions I can think of: First, occasionally perks give new skills that can affect gameplay, like a sneak roll or extra blocking. Second, magic: you get access to new spells as your MP increases, and some of these spells can affect play mechanics. But these are exceptions, and it doesn't really change the fact that 99% of leveling is just bigger numbers.
Because leveling just comes down to numbers, this creates balance challenges. If the numbers are off (bandits has too many hitpoints and does too much damage), combat is tedious--hack, backpeddle, repeat again and again you feel like you're just chopping wood. Or if the numbers are off the other way (too few hitpoints, not enough damage), NPCs cease to be a threat and once again, you're bored. The balance has to be just right. But getting the balance right at level 2 probably means the balance is wrong at level 10, because the numbers don't necessarily scale well.
I think you need two tweaks to fix leveling. First, leveling should affect gameplay and not just numbers., and this is where SkySA is game changing: High skill enemies have a shorter telegraphing window than low skill enemies, and for the first time higher level enemies have an actual gameplay impact and not just a number boost. Now I'm wondering what else is possible. Could the blocking skill make enemies block more often or more effectively? I feel like there's a whole horizon of unexplored possibilities here (which never would have even occurred to me before SkySA).
about driving combat variables is a big pain for anyone trying to make a balanced combat experience. You tweak it so the fighting feels just right at level 2, and then the balance is broken by level 10 because the scale of change for the important variables is different.
For a while, I've been convinced that the way to fix this is to drastically decrease the scale of leveling. Ie, a lvl 50 player or NPC should be marginally more powerful as a level 2 player or NPC, instead of 10x or 20x. Maybe HP and stamina could increase 1 or 2 per level instead of 10. Damages could be equalized so that a lvl 2 bandit with a sword is not harmless.
I still think flattened levels would be good. But all of a sudden, SkySA is a (literal) game changer: