If you remove the level cap via a mod, the content in patch 6 ( not the full act one ) takes you to about level 8-9, if I remember correctly. although that involves seeking XP rather than following the story flow. So, I expect you could get to level 12 quite early if you try, but I don't know what this implies about Larian's plans.
Expansions, DLC stories or a NG+ mode would all be ways to satisfy the "mo levels" urge, I suppose. In my opinion, if the story is good, the level doesn't really matter. It can be fun to mess around with wild options once you have played a game often enough, but that is usually possible with mods anyway.
"XP seeking" is exactly what most players will do. CRPGs, possibly above any other genre, have a following that seem to be made out mostly of completionists.
That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the "exp curve" would be significantly recalibrated in the final game.
Honestly, despise what they may have said at first about the intention (then dismissed) to cap the game at 10, right now it's almost hard to imagine the whole thing NOT climbing up WAY higher than that, rather than just marginally so.
Especially when you consider that we don't even have the ENTIRE Act 1 in this EA and Act 2 (of 3) is supposed to be larger by a significant margin according to what Swen Vincke himself confirmed several times.
I know that leveling up slows down almost exponentially at higher levels, but still...
