Earthbound - The Jeff Grind

So I am still entrenched in my first Earthbound playthrough and was making great progress until recently.

I had defeated the cultist and rescued Paula and revived her a couple hundred times (why the hell is she only a level 1 when she joins your team?) and was doing my mop up of Twoson. After rescuing the fab five it was off to Threed.

Once in Threed I explored shortly, went to grave yard then followed a hooker to the hotel/house then I hit that wall.

The Jeff Wall.

Ness and Paula get captured and threw into a dark room, and Paula telepathically contacts a guy named Jeff, to help them out.

So at this point I was given control of Jeff. A kid with a pop gun that is on his way to Ness and Paula.

and He's a level 1. WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?

After leveling up Ness to near Level 30 by grinding the shit out of enemies, I now control Jeff, a level 1 who has a hard time beating crows again.

Why in the holy fuck did they do this?

Im really dreading another player grind to catch up, its bad enough having Paula constantly go down on me (lol) because her level is so low, but now I have 2 characters to build up.

Uggghhhhh