SE is staggered releases in order to prevent/limit forced and/or rushed leveling.

If Alex HM/SV and Esoterics were released in 3.00 then anyone who was not in early release would be a week behind those who were and anyone who took more than week to level up would have been even further behind.

They set it up so that everyone had 2 weeks reach 60 before Alex HM and 4 weeks to reach 60 before Esoterics and Alex SV.