Palladium (and D&D) did have that problem of starting off seriously under-powered in spades. The other thing about Palladium however is that experience point gains were static whereas experience point requirements increased. Which meant that gaining new levels become, well, pretty impossible after 10th or so.

Moving from percentile to d10 makes sense if the effects of the game are in ten percent increments. This is not the case with Eclipse Phase, where both Aptitudes and Skills are purchased in single point increments. Making the change to a d10 system would require a lot of work.

I'll have to have another look the combat system. :)