Is Barbarian more frontloaded than we think?

[KorvinStarmast]

A Barbarian 10 Druid 4 has L 6 path features, feral instinct, +1 rage damage, +1 daily rage, 1 brutal critical die and 10 more HP.

You are invited to find that player and tell him that he was doing it wrong. (I understand your point on the optimization approach)
He was a great teammate whose character concept was major in Barbarian and minor in Druid. When I asked him (as he leveled up and chose Barbarian 10) if he was going to take a Druid level and get level 3 spells) his answer was "nope". As I understood his approach, the 4th druid level was to get the ASI and a few more spell slots, but he was majoring in being a Bear-barian.

Spoiler: The rest of the party

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We had a full tempest cleric, dwarf, for cleric stuff who had the healer feat which was still useful that level. We two, my Champion and that Barb/Druid, were the front line (with the cleric now and again joining us) that let the rogue and the wizard to their thing (the wizard later turned into a Gloom Stalker as the player got tired of wizarding).