ya the i figured the money aspect of leveling was probably "balancing"/soft progression lock but personally i think just upping the number of levels points on it would be fine. as it is at the end of the game so far i had 16 level points with nothing to spend it on and only about 15 silver. i get the perk tree's will be expanded but i think the money aspect gets spread too thin with it being needed for guild upgrades, story items, fishing/mining tools and what looks like to me will be an investment system for the shops that i'm guessing will improve their stocks of items that i'm guessing will then cost more. i get that it can all be balanced to hit a proper curve but i just think personally that it feels weird narratively that i am spending money to learn to pat someone's head. with exp i can see it as the hero becoming more charismatic cause he gets exp from building relationships and so you could say he is picking up on cues to know when doing that would be ok and if they would like it.
it's definitely not a deal breaker for me and if it made it into the final version i don't think i would mind that much but personally i'm not a fan of that aspect.