The custom settings that are coming sound nice but I doubt it would let you adjust the steep power curve. I can't think of a game that has done it that way.

It does not need to be as extreme as it is to convey that sense of growth. The current scaling reminds you that only one biome is ever relevant at a time. Earlier areas too boring. Later areas too tedious. It makes the world feel guided in that way. There are better methods of deterring players from staying too long in a later biome and the game already uses a number of them.

In most cases, progressing to the next material is a lot less practical if not impossible without the previous boss drop. Sometimes you need a new crafting station or a new outfit to ride out the unique hazards of a respective biome. Those seem like sound ways of nudging players to where they are supposed to go. Much more sound than nuking the player for wandering into sniffing distance of the wrong territory.