This jpg rationing makes me sad for what we used to have. When I was young, the internet was young, and jpg was overflowing. But as we burned through the last of the cheaply minable jpg we had to turn to increasingly cost ineffective means, like jpg rigs to extract deposits from the ocean floor, and accordingly images everywhere became clearer and clearer.
It would all be fine if we could just make a cost effective way of recycling jpg or green jpg technology would be adopted worldwide. But that's not something you or I can accomplish, we need whole governments embracing the switch to new jpg sources for it work.
In a high level campaign I ran, I took the design philosophy that the villains were supernatural (e.g, dragon or lich), the average npc was weak (level 3 or less), and the characters were once-in-a-1000-years heros (level 10-20).
Every now and then they would have an obstacle involving regular humanoids or the local government and they had the option of just steamrolling everything (even whole platoons). It provided a great contrast to the magic-boss death matches and let the characters really feel special.
It also drove home that they were the only ones who could save the day.