Fifteen, actually.
I've been playing it since Open Beta.
The rest of your post is spot on, though. It's a Korean grinder.
Anyway, for anyone actually playing this, I'm primarily on Azphel on the Asmodian side. Take a wild guess what my character's name is.
(Also, until you reach level 25, flying is limited and liable to seem "overrated" for the first couple weeks or so that you play it, assuming you play it for 12 hours a day. Everything is ultimately geared towards PvPvE play in the Abyss, where flight is practically unlimited, but the PvE side of things is just one long grind.)