The real reason is that AD&D druid progression is just bizarre as hell, and they didn't feel prepared to implement it in base BG2, which is why they didn't allow druids to get to level 15 in SoA. In ToB, they just said "screw it" and gave them a few (but not all) of the powers, but there was still an enormous XP gap between 14 and 15 that doesn't exist in the PnP game. Personally, I messed around with the XP and spell progression tables in order to smooth out the transition from SoA levels to ToB levels, which makes life a lot easier for multiclass druids but they lose a few HLAs. (The only repeatable HLAs are elemental transformations, though, so it's not really a big loss.)
There can only be nine 12th level druids ("druids") in a particular region. There can only be three 13th level druids (archdruids) in a particular region. There can only be one 14th level druid (great druid) in a particular region. There can only be one 15th level druid (grand druid) on the ENTIRE PLANET, but he gets a bunch of extra bonus powers. However, once getting to level 16 he steps down as grand druid and can continue gaining experience normally as a heirophant, though he loses a couple of the grand druid powers. The entire system is very strange since you have to either wait for NPCs to retire or you have to kill them, and it is often ignored/altered by DMs. It's doubly strange because advancement in the church that isn't really a church ends up being substantially more political than the actual churches. Some official settings like Dark Sun disregard it entirely and have their own (more rational) system.