Reaching max level not feeling like an achievement has less to do with the level cap itself and more with the levelling pace. It’s not a rare achievement, because the lethality of the game requires that new brothers can catch up to the higher level ones at a decent pace. Raising the level cap is not a solution to this as it would require making individual levels less valuable, as otherwise you’d get overpowered way too quickly, or buffing enemies, though that would result in the kind of gamey powerlevels that the game has been avoiding so far and make the increased level cap pointless (for example: early game enemies becoming a total joke). However, tweaking the levelling pace would have to be done very carefully, if at all, as without a decent amount of speed losing brothers becomes too much of a penalty – new recruits can never catch up, which would encourage save scumming after an important death.
I also don’t think seeing traits or stats is a good idea. The current design of the recruitment system emphasises having to roll with the hand that you are dealt. The game gives you enough information to get a decent impression of what you’re getting (gear and certain backgrounds being associated with particular traits), but there’s a always a risk factor. This keeps the player from spending too much time trying to figure out whether the gold is worth it or not, maintaining the pace of the game. It also makes for an important divide between the brothers that are yours and who you know, and the potential recruits who you don’t know yet. If you change that, you draw a lot of attention towards trying to get your money’s worth, while losing the flavour and killing the pace.
