Thank you for the feedback.
I agree that choosing between multiple nodes of the same state doesn't make much sense, especially that combat scales only with Danger Level and player can't preview e.g. equipment of merchants. The nodes are actually rubber-banded a little bit, but I was afraid that if I would restrict them more the node selection would feel more repetitive.
I think I could do two things to help with that: 1) add more types of nodes, and / or 2) show the further nodes on the map, so player could plan the journey more consciously.