I agree with Levis for this, and I find it very easy to attain a full set of officers containing all the perks. Ridicluously so actually, so that I've effectively maxed out in every line of perks fairly early (at level 18 I could easily achieve a full set of officer perks for every role on Sea Dog relying on tavern sitters--swahbuckler their levels are lower, but then thst level should be harder, and anyway "hire a specific officer" function were I willing to use it would give the same high level officers since it is difficulty independent).
I do not want officers progressing faster than player on levels, or it will never make sense to hire new guys throughout the game, which is part of the fun.
At lvl 18 on sea dog, I was able to hire a level 22 and a level 19 gunner. The level 19 gunner had good skills across the board, the 3 increase damage gunner perks, and 13 free perk points waiting to be assigned. I could max out all remaining cannon skills for 6 of his stored perk points, meaning that he still has 7 perk points waiting to be assigned after he is done with every single cannon perk. The level 22 guy has wasted most of his perks in combat roles, so I hired him with an aim to being a fighter.
Growing up the officers in-house works fine as well. I hired a navigator at level 8. Combined with starting perks, he could instantly purchase most of the navigation perks, basically only had sea wolf and club hauling left. Sea wolf has a level requirement though, which means eventually I will have to hire a new navigator who is already level 20. I am 100% fine with that--occasionally refreshing the team with more expensive and talented people makes sense as you progress in the game.
But it is only nessecarry to meet the level requirements of certain high end perks like sea wolf (level 20). It is never needed to meet the perk points requirement to purchase perks, provided the player does one simple thing:
Be selective when choosing which officers to hire, paying attention to not hire professionalls who wasted perk points on noncontributing perks or too many combat perks if it is a noncombat role. This is not hard to do if the player takes his time (usually, I achieve it by hiring the first person in a role I see, and then paying attention to future tavern sitters, replacing that person when a better candidate comes along). After interviewing 3 or 4 candidates naturally over time from my normal candidate visits, I'll find one who is perfect for their role, and easily maxes out their line.
In fact, doing this it is far TOO easy to get officers maxing out every perk line, and this was with me playing without shared xp at all. Level 18 for the player was easily sufficient, as most roles can max out at level 13 or so if you carefully select a candidate that used his perk points well. The game has barely started and perk progression is over, which if anything is too soon.
In contrast, an AI captain at level 18 will not have anything close to all the perks, unless I am misunderstanding something. In fact the only reason I have not manually increased perk costs dramatically is that I am afraid it would put the AI captains at an even greater disadvantage, as they can't rely on officers.
The only way that I would have any trouble maxing out perk lists is if I: 1) did not carefully consider whether a particular candidate should be hired or not, and instead just went with the first person regardless of perk selection, and at the same time 2) refused to consider replacing people with new hires later in the game. If I am willing to either screen candidates, or replace later, then maxing out perks is easy.
For some personal modifications for a planned playthrough, I am currently considering decreasing some perk costs, but level locking most perks, to slow down the player so there is real progression throughout the game but allow AI captains to more cheaply purchase the perks they need. Unless I misunderstand something, an AI captain has to purchase all the personal combat perks and seafaring perks his ship needs, and at level 20 he won't even come close. I wish AI captains could be temporailly granted additional perks (the same as their level, so 2x level) thst disappeared upon capture, to reflect the influence of their officers in having perks themselves.