This game is going to be battlecentric. The Devs already said that everyone is going to have to level a DoW and DoM to progress; I support this. You should have to fight for your right to explore the areas.

Each zone should have a level range of mobs (e.g. 1-5; 5-10; 10-15; and so on). That lvl range should increase with distance from the nation where we start.

If your character is not high enough to defeat the mobs in the area, the mobs need definite means to kill you. Design creative ways to make sure that mobs are defending their territory. Adding depth to mob range, speed, whatever you have to do to make these mobs defend their territory, the more depth the better. Put some thought into it.

At this current leveling speed, it would not take too terribly long to fight in one zone before you can move on. This way each zone would have places where people are parting and making good use of these maps that the Devs spent so much time and effort on.

Being able to cheat the system is what some people like to do. They want to jump on a chocobo before they die, they want to run out of mob range to stay alive, they want to flee instead of stand and fight so they can see the next zone without earning the right too, etc. It does cheapen the progression.