Quote Originally Posted by Kazimir View Post
Surplus was not added as a timesink, it was to get people to level more classes to utilize the action & traits system, instead of just rushing to 50 on one. Even with surplus you can hit 50 in a month so it's not like it's much of a penalty anyway.

The only reason why people complain about it is they want to hit the cap as soon as possible. But I guess I can understand why, the process of leveling in this game is so boring right now you can't really stop to enjoy it.
You actually described a timesink pretty much perfectly. Timesinks are mechanics in place, between other things, to make people take more time to reach the endgame. The fact that it also encourages people to play different classes (I would say almost forces) is more of a consequence than a cause, and so it was described both by Tanaka and Komoto.