Question to DBD players from old DBD player: Can you gain perks from other characters the same way as were able in the last?

As far as I remember in "the past" it was going that way: Let's take example here: For example if you were Dwight Main and have all perks on him and new character comes to the game and there's new perk that you'd want to try. "BACK IN MY DAYS" I could just gain that character to level 30, 35, 40 depending on perk that I want to unlock --> "gain that teachable on thier bloodweb" and then --> goes back to Dwight and just gain JUST ONLY 3/6/9 levels and have all 1/2/3 new perk/s "on Dwight", but as far as I know they were changed something with prestige and techables and something from what I understand you need to gain prestige 1/2/3 to have all 3 perks on level 1/2/3 from direct character? So instead of 30/35/40 levels + 3/6/9 levels to gain you'd need at least from what I understand ~/+150 level per character to gain those 3 new perks on level 3? If yes, like how does that help new players? With just how massive the game is compared to the past and how many characters is it in the game now?