it would be nice if leveling was less exploitable

[Genz]

The concept of "leveling" has been a trainwreck for years, in many games : power level, level sync, jump potion, big and small exploits, etc.
Nobody seems to think about the motivation of having "leveling" in a game, from a game design point of view. It's just an automatism : "we make a RPG, so we need leveling".

So yeah, just don't worry too much about. FFXIV is just following the "trend".
(FFXIV actually has an answer to the lack of meaning in "leveling", with PvP : remove level altogether)