Whether the default is enough in most cases (it generally is) or not is beside the point. His players don't feel they'll enjoy the game without having more, so he should give more. Period. Full stop.
LOL! This is such a FUBAR philosophy, I doubt you would even espouse it in practice, A4BG. It's the GMs job to craft a story and indeed an
experience for the players, if you're good. We can agree on that, right? The goal is for everyone to have fun, we can agree on that? If the players don't trust the GM to do these things, why is he the GM? amiller's group has made him their guide. That means they've willingly handed over judgements exactly like this to him.
If you start and find you don't like the feel, amiller, you can just dish out 20 Karma a Run, and 20K
Y and in no time you'll have your 500 BP, 18 availability runners. But at least you'll
know what is right for you instead of assuming.
That got me a laugh; I've played D&D so often at lower levels that I won't even consider playing at less than 5th, and my preference would be 10th+. The 'good parts' of D&D for me aren't the 'gritty fantasy' of low levels but the 'heroic fantasy' and 'super heroism' of mid to high levels. My character builds rarely even come together before 7th to 9th level!
And I probably have mentioned before I DMed a group from 1st to 17th and enjoyed every part of the whole campaign, but really liked the higher levels.
Not saying its wrong to love low levels - many people play D&D expressly for the 'gritty fantasy' that low levels embraces. Its just not for everyone.
Shiiii-, with our current PF campaign at 3rd level we were fighting demons, at 5th we were traveling to the World Wound, at 6th we'd started traveling to other planes, 7th we'd been to the moon and back, at 8th killed our first dragon (in one round, I believe), at 9th we'd had an entire campaign beneath the sea, if that's "gritty, low-level fantasy" I don't even wanna know what ridiculousness goes on at your table. And I agree, my PF/D&D builds don't even really blossom until later levels either (not much does), when they do, it's game over - there's no more real threats or mystery. It's either "how fast did the baddies die", or "okay, who's dead"? And while admittedly, "
all the fun" is hyperbole, things just gets ridiculous. And you're right that is a matter of play-style, but from amiller's post history, I'm pretty sure they don't have an idea of their play-style.
So, start with the start.