What I do with encounters is:

(*) I skip introductions and go round the table, having everyone play it out and roll (or Trait it once per Encounter). If someone wants to not roll, that’s fine. Skip them, but then they’re “out” and the encounter relies on others.

(*) Going over Tolerance in a tense encounter is a case of nope, you’ve blown it, you effectively have no successes. That way there’s tension if the players decide to push on further or stop before it’s too late.

(*) An Eye of Sauron costs a point of Tolerance, even on a success.

This worked quite well for me in a political conflict the PCs were in to make peace between the Bardings and Dwarves over a piece of treasure. They were down to one Tolerance and didn’t have enough successes for the ideal outcome.

If there isn’t the tension; no failure or partial success conditions, I’ll skip the encounter system. I will do it with Patrons if the PCs want a favour, or the first time (kind of a job interview), but not in general.