I’ve gotten a 180 lock to 1.8k with a friend and it’s honestly very easy, I rarely fought boosters but mostly RBG kids and like you called them “Buffoons”, they were easy to outplay. I don’t think gear disparity is an issue at all, I think the problem is that players never focus inwards to find what’s wrong with them but rather the systems of the game.
We could all use some more reflection imo, the systems are working as intended 