Pretty much. It's one level if you've naturally received an experimental effect to choose one, if you haven't then it's two - one to force the experimental effect, and the second to choose what it is. It's free to remove an effect.
I don't understand how this is different from how the favors worked previously. I pretty much stopped playing since 2.2 due to bugs though.. were favors bugged and they are now fixed? Isn't what you described how this has always worked? I've used favors to get experimental effects many times prior to 2.2