The rates past 10 are not that abysmal, they are harsh, but yes there is a system coming in that will "insure" to keep breaks from happening. The upgrade rate is always touchy, we've gone on and on about it to the devs but other versions like it the way it is..
Whilst not the best fix, at least it's giving us an option if we decide to overgrade our already existing items which were rather hard won on the current system considering.
Now just to hope it's an affordable option =).