[quote=@LeeRoy]
Continuing with my previous point. Look towards Umbraxis, the current most powerful Villain. Obviously scary and intimidating, but what sum total did he actually do to hurt our heroes? Umbraxis showed up, got his cosmic buttocks squarely kicked, returned to space where he is currently being shot with rays of light and put through an existential crisis. 

Where in that does fear take hold? He's the most powerful opponent yet, and he's already been defeated and is stood still in a cosmic standoff. 

It's like Galactus compared to Ozymandias. 

Galactus shows up, looks really spooky for a bit, then concurrently fucks off after some artifact shows up to prove to be dangerous. 

Ozymandias won 35 minutes before you even arrived.

A villain compared to a real villain.

You have to have some sort of impact in the world that you're in, otherwise you're just another common thug who roughs people up in the street. Maybe a little more fancy than common thugs, but still just the same.

NPC deaths hold no real ground, since they're just NPCs. Unless you have time to make some formative emotional connection between them and the player, nobody is going to miss them. 

See my point?
[/quote]

That is a flawed comparison.  Umbraxis was (at least from my understanding of the story arc) never on Earth.  He created a avatar-like projection that was purely investigating the planet.  It's not showing Umbraxis' full strength.

Let's look at another example that fits into your "model", namely what Alien Invasions always look like in Hollywood and what an Alien Invasion should look like if it really happened.  In movies, they always come onto the surface and engage with humanity in warfare.  In addition, they usually have a weakness that can be exploited (computer virus, water, even the microbial organism of Earth).  What should happen is that, due to their technological advantage, they should be able to wipe us all out from space and destroy us without us even raising a missle or gun against them.  But how much fun would that be?