Veteran does seem to be extra horrible, but I'm thinking it's mostly just perceived because of how the leveling curve slows down there.
In the end, I don't think that leveling -should- be changed that much: There should be incentive to keeping characters that extends into the characters' level itself, and as it stands the worst part of leveling system in my opinion right now is that it's too boring at the lower levels: Which in the end is not that bad.
Honestly, the "leveling is boring" part of things is largely something that could (and in my opinion should) be alleviated by builders, not necessarily by a wide-ranging code change. I remember back when you could die in the outpost because you got owned by a troll or dryad, and now the trolls hit like housecats and the dryads don't cast spells anymore. I remember back when you could die in the Morea caves because you walked into a fytrysk, which taught you to look ahead before running around somewhere dangerous, and for new players almost always ended up with interaction with the higher level PCs online (Because you typically died and needed help with your corpse). Those two areas in particular were changed to be largely death-proof and I'm not sure exactly why.
I wish that more leveling areas were like the Coliseum, A'van keep, or Beozaztar, than like Garazul, Chibunei, and the Valley of Ash. Those areas great for leveling, as in, they're great for reliably getting experience, but.... they're boring. Granted, having to kill 200 of any one NPC gets boring, but it's exacerbated when said NPC presents no challenge to you, even when you're fighting 3 or more at a time.
In the end, you're always going to have some people that are unsatisfied: Whether it's players annoyed because a leveling area is to difficult and they die a lot, bored because a leveling area is too easy, bored because you have to kill 200 NPCs to level, or angry because leveling is so easily ignored that no one cares about keeping their characters anymore. You can never please everyone, but as the leveling system stands right now it's really pretty good.
But pleeeeeeeease would you consider
changing enchant armor? Anyone who complains that leveling is boring can apply the very same reasoning towards enchant armor with even more gusto. I still think that's one of the best possible things that could happen to SK right now: A lot of people rage delete, or just delete, because they don't have the time to commit to enchanting a competent suit for either PvP or PvE.