[2022] Experience gains, player level and zone level

I feel like i am constantly underleveled in this game.

I have 3 characters i played in higher monoliths and all feel like they dont progress at all experience wise.

My highest level character is lvl86 and is clearing empowered monoliths, which have zone level 100. Experience gain is slow still and it feels like it would take ages to go into mid 90s. On this character i also did lots of arenas as thats said to have best xp gains.

My second and third character are doing lvl90 monoliths and they are lvl81 and lvl78. The lower lvl char just reached 90 monos and the higher one is close to reaching empowered monos.

I would expect my second char to reach empowered monos (zone lvl100) on lvl82, which is kinda stupid imo.

Xp gains are so slow compared to itemization, anyone else had a similar experience?