Meaningless levels - Am I looking at this the wrong way?

[sauce]

Leveling up, unless you directly unlock something with that level up, does nothing to power your character. Often times, you go 5-10+ levels without unlocking anything for a skill, leaving you with a slow crawl forward until you do reach that next unlock.

This feels really bad. You could face a fresh character with level 1 stats off with a character that has 100 in all combat levels, and if they had no gear or weapons it would be an even fight.

Part of the joy of leveling up in an RPG is getting stronger, even if it's in tiny increments. Not getting any accuracy or power each time I level up leaves me with little motivation to keep grinding. I've completed the main story, I've run Greywall dungeon a couple of times, and defeated the ice elemental. The grind ahead leaves little reward, and that stinks.

I could very well be missing a major late game mechanic, so please let me know.