i can see this being the case, in fact he is right. The first thing the game tells you to do is leves, and honestly mopst brand new players wont try to group up till around level7 or 10. Leves are very lackluster low level, and the exp is based on your level. you can only get chains for monsters your level or higher, and your base sp is based on your total to next level. Im not saying its impossible, but i think the average newb is going to end up getting pleveled from 1-10, because its way easier and faster than anything else by an insane amount. Gear is infact mmore important, so is optimal level gear, and to be honest, i dont think there will eveer be a lot of low level items in the market wards.

Of course, maybe they need to spend longer at lower level ranges, it was kind of insane before, but id imagine that being low level will probably be one of the most difficult times.