Bullying the Table

Nowadays, the difficulty or 'gate' between stages came more in one's comprehension ability.

For instance, the ability to find the first strand of Qi. Of course, this gate alone would stop thousands of cultivators from being able to advance into the next stage, but it was already significantly easier than the past, in which advancing a stage as early as Golden Core would cause a sudden death… Or advancing into Qi Condensing might cripple one's meridians due to a minor mistake. 

This is all to say that the spike in power between stages of cultivation wasn't very immediate, rather it was the spike between the peaks of two cultivation levels that was much more plain to see, as well as the unique abilities that certain stages would offer.