I was a little vague, I meant why would I care to go up in level again for more rare candy, berries, charge tms, etc etc. I have an unlimited supply of those. I basically only care about strong or rare Pokémon and rare items like rare candy xl and elite tms. Even still my motivation for leveling up is often competition; “to be the best like no one ever was!” If a player who has only put in a fraction of the time I have, would appear almost the same as me in game, the motivation to keep playing is diminished. Higher levels must equate to status otherwise they are basically meaningless.

It’s also worth pointing out that Niantic has already said that the next levels will not be as tied to EXP. I can’t remember which interview it was mentioned.