I always found it kind of odd that studying curiosities SPENT experience points instead of providing them. As it stands right now, farming experience points is pretty mind-numbingly tedious. You can't even gain it reliably through quests, so if you decide not to play the game for a few days and just stick to studying curios long enough, you'll be in crippling EXP debt.
If you gained a small amount of EXP from studying curiosities instead, I could see myself actually using the 'kindle' hearth magic every now and again or any of the other ones I literally never touch, and might even have hopes of owning my own well of higher quality water with enough saving. I doubt it'd have too many ramifications towards PVP as I'm sure people who engage in PVP bank their experience leading up to their PVP engagements anyhow.