I would actually prefer the experience rates to be lower then higher, 1.7 would be a pretty good rate (who says we have to round it to the nearest .5??)
I will specify my reasons for a lower experience rate below:
Economy - If it is easy to level then everyone will have high stats, if everyone has high stats items are much easier to attain.
Challenge - Having a challenge means it's actually an accomplishment to get 99 in a stat, the game isn't much fun if you've already attained the maximum level in all skills.
Player killing - Is far better when you actually have something to lose, if it's harder to obtain items due to the experience rate being lower it will make player killing more enjoyable.
Obviously there's two sides to every story a downside with a lower experience rate is the lack of time that many of the older players now have.