Well, it does say that there was a play balance issue involved in the decision:
Quote:Also realize that there has to be some play balance involved...
Anyway, IMO play balance issues are the most important, so there is certainly nothing wrong with that. There is nothing good about mindlessly designing an OOB without any regard to play balance, and since the "quality" levels are, as someone mentioned, soft values (abstractions), they make the most sense to be the values that change to keep it fun and playable.