Okay, yeah, that's what I finally figured out, hehe.. I thought of
one more reason why it doesn't work this way:

If it did, they wouldn't have to add "out of thin air" the penalty
back in, they could just rework the equation to take off the
penalty. Why have an equation like

Bard_Exp_gained = Base_exp - 0.4*Base_exp + 0.4*Base_exp

when they could just use

Bard_Exp_gained = Base_exp

to the same end result? I can see no reason why this simple equation
wouldn't work. Also, they went to great lengths to describe how
changing the experience tables would not work (i.e. it would give
every Hybrid an additional few levels) for there to not actually be
these experience tables. They WOULD have had an easier time
implementing this change if it did work that way (and we probably
would have seen the change a lot sooner - I got the impression that
they would have done it sooner had they been able to figure out HOW).

I understand where you're coming from, tho. Back to the original
statement that was made, I don't think that guy was saying what
you're saying. At least, he didn't respond to the posts saying, "I
understand where you're coming from, but what if it works this
way...". I, honestly, just think he didn't "get it".

Darkfox Reven'tsol
Xegony