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I don't imagine it has to be an all-or-nothing endeavor. I have attempted to create the NPC classes for Commoner, Expert, Aristocrat, Soldier, Acolyte, Adept, Cultist, Thug, Scholar, and Scout for levels 1 through 10. However, I don't plan on using them in most cases. I think most NPCs only require a quick build. Some NPCs might need a more complete build from the earliest moments, and other NPCs may develop into a more complete build.
Players of every level should be aware that there are NPCs (PC or NPC classes) that excel and they can respect. It is a part of many great stories that the hero/heroine finds a mentor. Some font of wisdom or experience beyond what the player can access. Some NPCs are worth investing in. In the end, there is a reason the players are doing things that the NPCs can not. Lower-level NPCs that have been fully fleshed out can also add an interesting dynamic if the party comes to adore them and wants to protect them.

Now that I have retired from the military and finished college, I will invest more time in learning the rules of the system.

v/r
Broken Gods

Although I may not have fully embraced all of the PF 2 rules, after a 5-year gap in GM'n, I have effectively built a game setting and have not decided on a system to settle on. I had hoped that since the setting relied heavily on NPC encounters, I could find a way to flesh this out. I don't think a legendary smith should be a level 0; it should be an 'Expert' with some abilities and a host of skills potentially available if the adventures drag them to setting XYZ. I will shush on the topic. Only 1 of my three careers has been non-warfare related, and I look at the NPCs in my life as equals. It may be a matter of perspective, but I see it as a useful tool for DMs.

Shushing now,
Broken Gods

I agree that a Game master should be able to make a player or an NPC "disproportionally good at something if you want," but if all we wanted was a rules-light universe, we would stop purchasing beyond the GM's Guide, Player's Guide, and Bestiary. Much of the game deals with players' interactions with NPCs; that is where the role-play really separates from roll-play, and the DM gets to shine.
Although I do like the idea you suggested about having an NPC with a disproportionate skill compared to their NPC level, maybe I like the idea that my NPCs can have full, experienced lives without failing to meet the expectations of a meritocracy. Perhaps they cannot defend their town against goblins because they focus on other skills/feats instead of being adventurers.
I think we limit our options when we write NPCs off as sentences separated by a few commas or as needing PC levels to be formidable. If I need to, I will homebrew a solution and keep it to myself.

v/r
Broken Gods

Bottom line up front (BLUF): I propose introducing NPC classes balanced with PC classes (archetypes included) that excel in their domains in a way players could only dream of but lack the knack for adventures to perform mythically abroad.

I have been playing TTRPGs since the 90s, and the one area I have always been sad to see ignored is the NPC classes. In 1996, TSR published "Sages and Specialists," the book has remained in my mind since then. None of the classes excelled at adventuring like the core and extended classes, but each did something the players could not. It always baffled me that a blacksmith could work in town for the king for 20 years, but an adventurer who never had time to sit down in a smithy could out-craft him as a matter of skill point availability and allocation.
I always imagined an NPC's skill set was too broad or specialized to make an adequate adventurer. A thief or investigator's ability to gather knowledge in a new town should pale in compassion to the 'nosey neighbor'/maid who services the castle or the 'Mother Teresa'-like figure who services the poor.
I imagine the campaign could skip forward from a break, and I could have a PC pick up meaningful skills by attaining NCP levels. Let's take Thomas Edward Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) as an example. He was, at best, a linguist and a mapmaker before his rise into history. He might have qualified as the old 'Expert' NPC class, and his fame might have been impossible without that beginning. Did he start as a level 0 and transition directly to a PC class and work forward from nothing, or did he carry valuable skills from his time as an NPC?
I wouldn't mind having a high-level 'Adept' human with a small cabal of followers capable of carrying out feats that a single wizard could never imagine on their own. Things like this shouldn't be homebrew. The mechanics should support the value added by ordinary people. Most of us are NPCs, and the most epic tales are built on the backs of ordinary people doing the things others wouldn't consider trying.
I propose the introduction of NPC classes balanced with PC classes (archetypes included) that excel in their domains in a way players could only dream of but lack the knack for adventures to perform mythically abroad.

v/r
Broken Gods