Weird Experience Gain Mechanics Harms Hardcore

When you play hardcore in POE type games the general idea is to get slightly ahead of the level. Unfortunately that is noot actually possible without a lot of backtracking. Here is an example why.

I ran a new char in Hardcore SSF and went into the Red vale. I killed the boss and then reset the zone and played again until I was 3 levels higher than it. Red Vale has high density and so it is a good zone for this. However by the time I got to Draven's tomb I was back at parity with level. These games naturally have a level band where experience is effective (usually 3 up or 3 down and gets bigger the higher you go) but the curve seems to be super steep. You play a zone over your level and you dont get that much more experience than even level, say 10%, and you play a zone under and the drop is dramatic. So dramatic that you would probably have to play every zone twice to have enough experience to maintain the gap. This makes hardcore even more damaging because since you have low margin for safety you either have to play every zone twice or take a SIGNIFICANT amount of risk.

Its ok in softcore if you die to a boss. Its even expected. In hardcore the death ruins the run so people play more defensive builds and try to get ahead of the level.

Can you guys please look at that curve?