you aremt really a new player, your opinion is based on the broken sp before the patch for solo. The fact is level 1-23 gave boosted exp before, you would in fact have hit a noticeable drop in sp at about 20 even before the patch.


just to give you an example:
after 23 before the average monsters MAXIMUM sp reward (when you are fighting something 10 levels higher than you) would be 200 sp.
some harder mobs would give you 228 or 228
the hardest mobs you could probably find at that level would give you 450, but they would be noticeably harder/or take longer (efts, having bigger hp pools)

Now im not sure what sp caps at, but but for a monster like 1 level higher i have seen 200sp withouta chain or a link, your base sp actually increases with your level.
Essentially what you think is normal for the old system is not normal for the old system. seeing more than 250 exp for the hardest battle you could get a reward for was only for about 5 mob specieces, and many were not worth the time.