Possible to reset a character's game progress?

Now that the game is out of beta I was thinking of starting over the game, however I always get attached to my characters (hence why I only ever play a game with just the one I’ve originally created) so I was wondering if there was a way to somehow keep my current character but reset his in-game progress.

That is, keep the XP, items+stash and devotion points but drop everything else and start over.

I’ve discovered that deleting everything in the save except for the file “player.gdc” did cause the game to start over (except for the intro video, that wasn’t displayed) but also that every unlocked rift gate had remained so, the gate to Devil’s Crossing was already open (possibly because of my high faction score?) as well as a few conversations appeared to have been skipped to the quest-giving part (like the Seamstress which immediately apologized for her earlier bad behaviour). All restored shrines also remained so.

The question here is whether that is indeed a “true” reset or whether my progress will be stopped later on by keeping sth locked (like sth remaining fixed while being requested to fix it).

What was your experience, if any, with the above?

BTW, my character is a (legit) HC blank level 41, no spent skill, attribute or devotion points so I wasn’t that worried about keeping that, however I trust these would also carry over.

Why start over completely from normal?

Why not continue the game? By your level, you are around act 4. You should just continue, kill Log, then play in Elite… Gives you the same type of … possible satisfaction.

Just my opinion.