It's clearly about being able to play the game consistently anywhere in the galaxy

What? The galaxy is not consistent. The galaxy ranges from lvl 1 planets to lvl 75 planets. Why do you want consistent gameplay in not consistent places? You get the consistent gameplay in all content that is consistent with your character. Endgame. OPs, PvP, FPs, are all in line with your character and this is your consistent territory, where you need to be consistent.

You fail to recognize that this change is wanted by a huge part of playerbase, because the leveling process was boring. Every single enemy was at most a 2 shot including class bosses. We had many complains on reddit, on the forums over the years, about how easy the game was. New players didn't had the stamina to reach endgame, because they were falling asleep when trying out this game.

Bioware made this change because it was requested.