This actually works perfectly (for me): I was level 29 on my archer itching to respect back to melee, and bam I've now lost a gen but gained like 4 million xp and am like 500k to level 31.
Now I need to strongly consider my heirlooming options..
Seems like a decent fix in general. Still bummed about the longer grind to 31, but at this point it doesn't seem worth it to retire anyways so whateves.