Just asking, is starting a new character now going to leave me annoyed and feeling like a little brother tagging along or is new character progression pretty forgiving?
Progression is capped at level 25 currently. You don't get more strategems for a higher level. The overall level cap is now 150 instead of 50, so way more than 100 hours. Level 25 comes at around 20hrs of gameplay? And you only need the last 5 levels for the mech.
Ship module unlocks take way longer than level 25 , I'm 47 and still missing a few rare samples. Medallion (warbond) progress will also continue for me 10-20 more hours, so you oo you'll be unlocking new weapons and cosmetics for a while. And I think there's a new warbond every month first thursday. You get medallions with less playtime if you just log for major/personal orders though