Make enemies more difficult and spawn a loot chest on every level?
I believe this would make the grind much more fun. Otherwise it’s just a speedrun to level 10 and the just die if you don’t have the gear or skill to beat EK. Then going again to reach level 5 to upgrade stuff.
Developers probably removed the loot and experience to make players go explore the world. There are reasons more than the loot though, like all the materials that can be gathered and story with new areas in the future. Maybe they will add something new too, hopefully.
But now having max level and everything else upgraded to max, makes going through the world and hoping for those specific item’s to drop feel bit of a chore.