[PvK]

Yes an increase to 7-8 levels might be more balanced for the standard set.

In Proportions people are stuck with unphased shields for longer, and there are higher levels of unphased shields, and fighters remain viable weapons but lack phased shields, and cost tradeoffs are more important, so PPB remains valuable even when weakened in Proportions.

This sort of change is only a disadvantage to AI's designed to take advantage of the original PPB. Others won't use PPB's anyway, so they'll be better off.

PvK