I'm not used to be agree with you, but yea lvl 10 sounds also good to me^^
It wasn't so bad in BG1. You really feel like a noob in the beginning but you could feel the characters becoming more powerfull at each level up... but never OP.
I agree with you.
BG1 was a great and also very large game where you ended up with lv 7-10, depending on your class.
You started very weak and you felt like experienced adventurers in the end, but not like being a god.
Don´t tell me low level spells are useless.
I have not played DnD 5E, but I have played Pathfinder Kingmaker.
- Web made any melee enemy useless, stinking cloud made every enemy useless unless they don´t breath or are immun to poison.
- There was no significant battle where you did not want to have haste.
- good luck trying to finish the game without leser/greater restauration, freedom of movement or protection from poison
- blur/displacement + mirror image was great for any tank
Plus there is a huge balancing problem at the other end of the spectrum.
Spells like wish, time stop or polymorph. Players will rightfully complain if they are not in but it will be hard not to break the game, especially if enemies can use them too.
Sure, BG2 had them, but if you really use the PnP rules some spells can really mess with the game.
I am worried about the next pathfinder game.
You get up to lv 20 plus having mystic powers of angels, demons or dragons when fighting demon lords.
I fear this will be hard to balance. Experienced PnP players will destroy everything as gods while new players will have problems to hit a demon lord at all and they get crushed in one round.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Mad S. Tist 
