I was talking about this current season, because the guy cleared 132 <2k in season as well. Comparing to NS wouldn’t be fair.
D3 is a grinding game. If you aren’t willing to invest time into it, you shouldn’t be rewarded by being on the leaderboard, so yeah. Remember, this thread is about “who really is #1 or #10 on the leaderboard”.
I agree. So comparing players which is what you suggest with higher levels versus lower, means you also have to include all the types of players. Anything short of that is too ambiguous.
As for deserving to be on the leaderboards, that is an opinion not fact. Anyone that reaches the minimum target deserves to be there, no matter the type.
If you want to talk the best as in respect, the player that plays entirely without any clan, group or collective help not only is the most worthy of respect because they are not riding on the back of others, but because they got there by themselves. They also tend not to have much more than 2K paragons either and they definitely deserve to be there. Why? Because they are the only true solo players, not piggyback players. That has nothing to do with individual skills. A lot of group players are great, they choose to play group because of the paragon creep not because they cannot.
However, discounting people that choose not to as non-deserving, is sorry to say, a little short-sighted.