I've got 50 vigor and haven't been one-shot by anything yet. Can't say for sure about fragements 'mostly' locked behind bosses but I was quickly +4 just from wandering around the first map area. IMO they shouldn't quote salty complaints like Flippikus' because it waters down the real problems Fromsoft has and always had had porting their games to PC.
I love all their games and am a pretty big fanboy but also love PC gaming and it's clear From is a console company. I think they'd just release on Playstation if it were up to them. But if they're not going to resist the siren call of the PC money, they really should hire a team that knows what they're doing. I know there's some stereotypes that there aren't great Japanese Windows devs - really don't know if that's true but even if it is, From is a AAA company with AAA sales and can afford proper devs for PC releases.