Well, think of it this way. That's the meaning of a RPG. If you dislike it might as well sway away from it like Karuvatto. Not much you can change there until some genius creates a next generation system for RPGs which will then be mass produced by games in the future anyway and become unoriginal until the next, etc.

You're going to have to define progression, seeing when you level up I see that as progression of your character.