I do. I use the Oghma Infinium to get to level 81. I'd rather be able to enjoy the game, without worrying about perks, raising skills etc etc at a high level than spend 90% of the time doing random things in hopes of raising my Destruction to level 75 for that shiny new spell I need.

I don't see what difference it makes. You are still leveling no matter what. Everything you do contributes to you gaining a level. You see NPC training all through the game. Hitting dummies, target practice. Even the mages practice their spells.

Everyone trains before battle. Urma Thurman spent a year on that mountain punching a post before she could kill Bill.

As far as cheating, it's not cheating. Not because it's a single player game. You can cheat at Solitaire. It's not because you are still leveling. Now using a "glitch" is cheating. Using a book to get you to level 81 is cheating. That is not powerleveling.

Some people don't start to really enjoy the game until they have a fully built character.

If that's how some people want to play, then I say more power to them. This is a game where you get to play how you want, so even if I highly disagree with the practice, it's that other person's game, not mine.

Another great thing about this game is that I don't have to worry about running into power-levelers. It's a single player game, so the only idiot I have to worry about playing with is myself.

I haven't read through the entire thread, but to respond to the original post:

I can accept some form of power leveling in some sense, at least if you're talking about leveling skills. Craft 100 daggers and your skill raises. Well, in the real world, practice does indeed make perfect. Repeating a task over and over can help you get better at that task. Same with Soul Trapping creatures you summoned raising your skill level in...in whichever school of magic Soul Trap belongs to. I forget which. Well, you're practicing a spell from that school, aren't you? So it makes sense that some of these repetitive actions make you better.

But then there are and have been in the past really, really stupid methods of power leveling. Crouching into sneak mode, pointing your character at a corner of a room with no people in it, hitting "constant walk forward" and then going off to eat dinner for two hours while your character's Sneak Skill rises - well, that's just ridiculous. Running from Bravil to Anvil while jumping the whole way, and having your Athletics and Acrobatics skills rise - again, that's absurd. Running, sure, to some extent I can see Athletics improving, but if you're running at a pace you can maintain nonstop from one city to another, well, that means that you're jogging pretty slow and jogging at 5 mph for a really long time isn't gonna make you some sort of cardio god. It might burn a lot of calories, but it won't make you a super-athlete. And repeatedly bunny-hopping as you travel from one city to another isn't gonna make you any sort of acrobat, it'll just wear out every joint in your body below your waist, from your hips to your knees to your ankles and the arches of your feet, as well as giving you shin splints. But it won't make you an acrobat of any sort.

Even with the ones that make sense, some variety might well be good. Being able to repeatedly forge a single item (iron daggers) might make you an expert at forging iron daggers very efficiently and consistently, but it won't make you a broadly skilled smith by any description. Forging a zillion iron daggers to get to Smithing 100 and then being able to produce Legendary Dragonscale Armor - well, that kinda defies common sense as well.

So yeah, practice makes perfect, but certain aspects of leveling skills need a little tweaking.

Now as for power-leveling character levels, and especially "efficient leveling"...that just is a little too meta for my tastes. Takes me right out of the game to start thinking about that nonsense.

for me, it felt like the only way to get to level 50 because I was only specialzing in warrior talents, + Light armour, sneak, and lockpicking. Limiting myself to use only half of the skills made leveling through questing after mid 30's almost impossible

The only reason to get level 50 imo is to get the achievement
not to mention, leveling past mid 20's is still rather slow, and the only reason to get to 30 is to do the last deadric quest

I mostly agree with this.

I tried power leveling Smithing in one game (which is the same game that I discovered how much I hate it...), and my Dunmer became Tamriel's foremost supplier of Iron Daggers and Leather Bracers...

Every time he'd kill a Bandit, in the Bandit's inventory I'd see an Iron Dagger and a pair of Leather Bracers. My Dunmer would always comment: "I made those for you."

lol

I power level because otherwise one's character becomes generic. For example if I want to be good at Illusion and hopeless at destruction, armour, and melee fighting (which I find dull), I need to practise my Illusion skills by some method that doesn't involve getting hit. And it seems to me that mages would have to practise like that, so it adds realism rather than detracting from the game.

For the same reason the advice only to level skills you don't use seems weird to me - if you don't use them, why do you need to be good at them?

I don't powerlevel or use the Oghma Infinium glitch (but I abused the heck out of that scroll glitch in Oblivion to buy houses at low levels, I admit.) I won't begrude anyone their fun from things like this though. It's just another way to play and can be fun.

In Skyrim, nothing is more satisfying than the level up music while in the middle of a tough dungeon fight. Health, magicka, and stamina bars nearly depleted, character ready to give up the ghost...then BAM! the most thrilling sound.

I don't find power levelling to bad. I power level when I'm really close to level up, so I just soul trap a deer to gain the level. If you use the Oghnam Infinum Book that svcks the fun out.
EDIT: I mean the Book Shelf glitch using the Oghnam Infinum.