That experience you describe still isn't the experience that developers intended for new players. The dungeon feels empty, hollow, and entirely unimmersive if after watching a cut scene, everything is dead.
I bet the developers also didn't intend for people to just bail or kick newbies out of this dungeon either, but that's still going to happen, and if anything they are facilitating it with this change.

Also, bit of a tangent here, but if they really truly wanted to create a truly authentic experience for new players, they would need to slap a item level 50 cap on it so that everything isn't as faceroll.