Not the point. The 55 year old MMA has grown weaker over his life, despite all of his training. Sure he got to grow stronger for a decade or so, but the journey follows the same pattern, and reaches the same conclusion, for all of us.
Ehh Pro MMA fighter/basket ball player/ or any athlete will have the better gear than the average/casual person. Pro Basketball player’s shoes probably worth 50 times more than the casual’s basketball shoes.
WoW tried making it not based on gear in Legion (I think it was Legion at least) and PvPers lost their minds. WoW doesn’t have an issue. PvPers have an issue. They only want it “fair and balanced” when they are the weaker one, when they aren’t that ideal flies out of the window.
That isn’t the conversation. You spoke strictly of gear, which FF14 has the same gearing structure as WoW. As any RPG with scaling difficulty does. I very much notice a difference in my ability to play FF14 when I put on better gear, which translates to better performance.