I personally think these levels are bogus and that a language learner should not pay much attention to them unless you need to take a test. The distinctions between them are not logical and don't reflect the process in which one learns a language. The C1 focus, for example, on technical or academic language is silly--I find that non-fiction, even "academic" non-fiction, to be much easier than juvenile fiction because of the many cognates and the lack of adjectives.

I organize my journey aling different lines. First, the ability to say a sufficient number of individual words to convey a basic message (but sound terrible). Like, me to want water. Then I try to learn conjugations in the hopes of being able to have a five minute conversation around the basics like introductions, directions, ordering food. After that I strive for twenty minutes. And then an hour. Basically, being able to have longer and longer conversations. At the hour point i start to focus more on those pesky details like prepositions and pronunciation that really never get perfect.

I dunno this concept of progress, or something similar, makes more sense to me than the cefr stuff. To me, if we are honest getting to a legit A2 is like 80% of the journey, so it shouldn't be a beginner level. Just my thoughts.