As mentioned above, we probably could have reached lvl 6 in Act 1 alone if there wasn't the EA lvl cap in place. It would be more fun to continue leveling as we play, and get to use some of the 14th lvl class abilities, rather than just be stuck at lvl 12 for 20 or 30 hours worth of content at the end of the game.
XP rates are always adjustable and it may very well be the case that the act 1 xp gain was overtuned so we don't need to explore every nook and cranny to try lvl4 stuff out, leaving more stuff for the casual testers to find at the full release. At least I purposefully avoided certain things so I would have fresh content on release even in act 1 but maybe that's just me.
Also I'm fairly certain you only end up spending hours at the level cap if you absolutely minmax and game the xp system the whole way through ie. pass speech checks for xp, do quests for xp, then kill the npc anyway. That's pretty much what you had to do to be capped out well before the end in original sin 2, along with completing every quest your character could progress.
Another way they could go about the issue of grinding act 1 especially is the classic fallout method of inevitable game over if you dont get the worm out of your head fast enough. Doubles as a limit on how many long rests you can take! Now I doubt a modern game would ever do this but it's fun to think about, I would certainly enjoy the actual urgency of the mission.
Lae'zel approves.
