Does the game catch up?

I realized mid-playthrough that using the Spinda Café was a huge mistake, because I'm waltzing through this game as a damn Turtwig. Sure, my partner is a Skitty, which is by far the strongest character in the starting roster, but all she ever does is just sit behind me while I do all the work myself as I don't get affected by anything, she's basically not even there. I got level 40 stats at level 34 and I'm currently at Treeshroud Forest, not even dungeons I clearly remember being tougher like Amp Plains or Quicksand Desert did anything to me. I just take every hit and manage to regen everything before the next one comes.

I'm seriously considering just restarting my save and not using the café at all... but I'm also thinking of just continuing without using the Café anymore. So, my question would be, does the game's difficulty eventually catch up or am I better off just resetting? I've done literally no grinding at all, as I wanted to leave Marowak's Dojo for the post-game. The special chapters actually feel challenging which I loved a lot, and I really wish the main game had that sort of difficulty.