There seem to be quite a few people with problems with the speed of Character advancement. I think the problems that are being experienced are all down to the speed at which advancements are acquired. With the high competence of starting characters speedy “levelling up” is unnecessary and feel the system was designed for slow advancement. Then maybe later in the design process it was perceived that players wanted quicker advancement so higher level of rewards was recommended.
We tend to get an advance only when our characters have “achieved something significant” in the story. This had lead to slower advances but no one feels hard done by, as I said as you start with a reasonable competence you do not become frustrated your character cannot achieve anything. We also come from a CoC background so am not really use to sudden competency gains. The advances for us are a nice to have not the point of playing the character.