I think you’re oversimplifying the damage equation, although it’s very simple already.
total dmg = base dmg * (mod1 + mod2 + mod3) * (mod4) * (mod5 + mod6)
This is what a basic dmg equation looks like… This is what people are referring to as ‘damage buckets’. You’re oversimplifying things by saying that dmg mods should just be additive and not multiplicative.
In d4 it looks like this
total dmg = base dmg * (base stat) * (crit bonus dmg if you crit) * (vulnerable dmg) * (any other +dmg modifier is additive to each other)
None of this matters though because it doesn’t change how many 0’s can be behind the final number. That’s just a simple tweak of the base values of dmg and health… It doesn’t change the dmg to health ratio…
From a development/computational perspective. Those calculations happen on server side I believe as well and your client only receives the final number. The reason d3 had lag issues is because of how their damage formulas were laid out and they had WAYYY too many things that did small number of dmg like area dmg.
So big numbers don’t matter. The problem is LOTS of mobs with LOTS of numbers…not how big the number is.