Yes, agreed, looking at the rules, magic items allowed, spells allowed at which level, etc... its obvious game "balance" was desired. It worked fairly well, as I recall.
In fact I have been giving thought to trying to put together a campaign again, because the couple of short games I have played over the last year worked far better than I would have thought based on the opinions of many I have read on the internet. It confirmed my memories of a very playable and fun game.
So I would like to see how a full campaign runs, modifying it with house rules based on my additional 20 years of gaming since last running a 1E campaign.