There isn’t any obvious way to either see where your low-ass level gang can quest next and there’s also no zone where you can keep grinding to build a few levels before moving on like in a Final Fantasy or something. That means while you have a giant freely accessible map, early encounters in the wrong neighbourhood will kill you dead anyway so there’s still railroading going on.
So any kind of certain content being too difficult for your level is railroading to you? Now that’s a hot take if I’ve ever heard one.
Also, you can beat the game at Level 1.