The Powermatic Large Sander’s mechanism to set the height for sanding has always resulted in very aggressive material removal on the first pass. I teach the Stationary Sanders class, and I found myself recommending to students that they back off 3-4 steps (0.015-0.020") from that automatically set height. And it seemed to be getting worse; I was having trouble getting some pieces to even go through on the first pass without an adjustment.
I got tired of this, and I’ve made an adjustment to the measuring pedestal. Now the first pass is similar to all the other passes (after raising the standard 0.005" step), perhaps even a touch lighter. I find that much preferable to starting with such aggressive material removal. Just be aware of the change if you use that machine.