I understand that whatever decision in this direction, the blanket will always be too short.
A decision need to accommodate those who:
- stay in Vallaki because their character makes sense only in Vallaki even if they are high level (faction/love interest/concept/etc)
- those enjoying dungeoneering, both high and low level
- those low level that are still building their relationship with other characters and the module, including interactions with (A)MPCs
- etc.
Someone will find themselves inconvenienced.
Now, I do understand that in order to respect the module, moving around should not be easy. But as someone mentioned, the problem is time. Doing the "Barovian run" is all time detracted to RP. You will have the numbers to back or roll back on you decision, but it is my opinion that making everyone waste their time will not solve the problem.
The original sin is that there is no high medieval fantasy hub for higher level characters. As everybody knows, Port is a strongly characterized place that simply will not fit every character concept, class, race etc. Since Marcelia started building and re-building the Wreckage by the area in front of the Vardo, there is more people RPing there than in Port at any given time, even if that place should be a weird, eerie, ghastly nonplace at arm's length by the most mysterious entity of the server: this because the Wreckage is a better option than Port to many, many characters. There is no alternative to Vallaki at present, as a place to RP. And hindering movement for everyone is a non solution, as for my own characters all it could do would be forcing myself in a location where i don't want to stay, and high level might bring their own confrontational RP in a low level place.
But maybe i will be wrong and this is what was needed.