is there a way for me to turn this off so that GSE doesnt add ranks each time a toon levels?
Its not enjoyable having to edit everything each time I level and get new spell ranks.
Its fine if I want to put a different rank myself, but i have no desire for GSE to automatically do it for me.

Underneath each spell has an ID. /cast fireball resolves to the highest you can cast. If you can say rank 3 that’s what it resolves to. The problem when you train is that it now resolves to rank 4 but GSE still has the if for rank3. GSE then doesn’t know if you want rank3 on purpose or not. It can’t tell at level up as it might be a while between when you can learn rank 4 and when you do learn rank 4. It is a trade off that I have chosen more to aim at the max level convenience rather than levelling convenience.

bummer. ive never liked this feature once it was implemented.
Im always anxious to hit max level so i can be free of it.

This annoys the living crap out of me too. The logic is backwards. GSE needs to ALWAYS assume you want to cast your highest rank of everything unless you specifically tell it to cast a certain rank. If I create a macro in the built-in interface that say /cast <insert_spell_name_here> it will by default always cast the highest level, so the capability exists.