I think one of the problems here is that many people care far less about the rewards than they do about the SP/XP. Right now, it seems most of the leves give gil as a reward. Some give marks, or gear, or crystals, but most just money. And gil is very, very easy to come by the way things are now. Just having a certain amount of gil is not going to be enough incentive for a lot of people to actually complete a leve. That, in my opinion, is what the developers are failing to see when they claim the failing method is "fine".

I like the idea of making every leve (of the same rank) worth the same amount of SP/XP, and having the SP/XP only being rewarded when the leve is finished, with the option to immediately try again if you fail. If that idea isn't seriously considered, I hope the developers at least take the time to consider that people will not stop failing the leves until it becomes worth their while to actually finish them. Gil alone isn't worth it.