I like the idea of certain things being completely out of my league when I'm a n00b, and dirt easy when I'm all buff. I went with "minimal". I know a guy who hated Oblivion because the scaling was so extreme, that he felt there was almost no point in leveling. I kinda see his point.
I don't see the "NO SCALING" arguement as pedantic. Though, arguing that it's "realistic" might be kind of silly, since the counter-arguement could be made that, "Why do you think that while YOU'RE out levelling like a mad dog that THEY'RE sitting around doing nothing?"