Greetings!
Yeah, 2200 XP takes 6 months of play to reach? I'm not buying it. In WHFRP 1E, I think most game sessions averaged about 300-600 XP. That holding true, reaching 2200 XP should take about 6 game sessions to reach. Maybe 8. Assuming a Career takes about 500 XP to fulfill, that's probably a Character that has accumulated three or four careers, so, definitely a formidable Character in Warhammer. Probably has two or three attacks per round, WS of 60%-70% and if the Character is a Cleric or Wizard, probably has reached Level 2, with Apprentice or Initiate, and maybe one other supporting career for some extra skills or raising their abilities in some other fashion.
Besides that, though, indeed, I support throwing players new to WHFRP into the sewer as fresh, one career starting characters. Probably half the party will die before they reach two or three career, assuming they don't get eaten or chopped in half while on their first Career. It takes a bit of time for some people to realize that WHFRP isn't D&D, and your character isn't a god-like super hero. To succeed and survive in WHFRP, you almost have to be a ruthless "Chaotic Neutral or Lawful Neutral" character in outlook--you have to maximize every resource, every advantage, using force, guile, ambush, deception, to defeat your opponents.
That is one of the great features of WHFRP is the overall lethality of the *system* as well as the game world and society. In addition to absolutely brutal critical hit tables, terrible maiming and crippling, contracting virulent and often disfiguring diseases--even when recovered from, and avoiding dying, you may still suffer some kind of penalty or disadvantage as a consequence. THEN, there's also the psychological trauma and insanities which can be gained from enduring harrowing experiences while fighting Chaos Beastmen, filthy Skaven, or dark and wicked Demonologists. Much of the fun in WHFRP is not so much the destination, but the journey getting there.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK