"Feeding levels" to the player is absolutely the opposite of what you should do in a cRPG. If you like Diablo or any other mindless action-RPG then yes, absolutely. In a game in which you develop a story and make connections with the NPCs, leveling after 1 hr is even too fast.
It's amazing how that rule of yours is both excessively vague and overly specific at the same time.
Never mind what the actual situation or story is, if you reach level 2 in an hour or less, that is too fast (and presumably, that means the game must be a mindless action RPG).
I can prove you wrong immediately with Trails in the Sky FC. I just went from New Game to leveling up in 46 minutes without skipping cutscenes or speeding through dialogue, just following the main quest. And no one who's played it could argue that it's a mindless action-RPG or a game which is story-light or doesn't let you forge connections with NPC's.
How fast you level up literally has no connection to the story or quality of the story. None at all.
