I played just past the first zone in OG Borderlands before I gave up on it. If you're on PC there are ways around the leveling stuff...
I did see there's an exploit for one of the challenges, but I'd long since passed it so that was a no go. I usually don't cheat, but when developers do dumb stuff like that, I have no problem. I was hoping there was a level or XP cheat, but no such luck. So I guess I'll just slog through and try to level.