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As KillerGremal mentions it's certainly not essential as the maps will play quite happily without it but all the monsters will have randomized levels depending on what's defined in their templates.

We could have made the maps with a defined level progression and if there's enough demand for that feature I'll look into it. However you would have to start with a new party for each map, just like with DS1. Should you attempt to play such a map without the monster level adjustment mod turned on then it would be exceedingly boring as all the monsters would be 30 or 40 levels below you.

In any case DS2 itself imposes an arbitrary level progression system onto you. Should you get too far ahead of the experience versus level ratio, all the monsters start becoming blue or green coded and the amount of experience received is drastically cut! This is very much apparent in many of the secondary quests where you return to previously visited areas only to find all the monsters are blue or green and serve no useful purpose other than slowing you down if you choose to fight them.

I actually prefer to play DS2 and Broken World with the Monster Level Adjustment mod through a mini-mod I made for those two maps. Often you get more valuable loot and gold from the monsters you fight than you do from the quest reward itself! Not all monsters respawn so it's still quite easy playing through those long, boring secondary quests but you receive full value in experience and quality of loot.

Still all of this is personal preference and everyone's different in that regards. Perhaps bare_elf could have a poll to see if there's any interest in having a linear level progression for the maps? Would be interesting to see the results and certainly would be useful for a map like the Utraean Peninsula which would play out more like LOU from DS1 (remember that you wouldn't dream of venturing into the Great Northern Forest too early in case you were stomped like a bug by the nasty high level monsters?).