i donno about the leveling thing, it dosent bother me that much...
i mean, if i have 10 health, my enemy has 10 health, and my gun does 3 damage.... it takes 4 hits for it to die
if i have 10,000 hp, he has 10,000 hp and my gun does 3000 damage, it still takes 4 hits to die.. same thing, difrent numbers.
see past the levels and you enjoy the game :) unless the game is only about the levels... and the items..