Because its the number 1 way to ensure you dont get declined. Its said a lot because it can fix almost every complaint a person tends to post about concerning finding a group.
How is it ignorant and self defeating?
It would be ignorant to pretend the option doesnt exist. Its self defeating to continue to apply and get declined.
Its not a long term life decision to run your own key or join a guild. Its one of the quickest ways to log in, and run a dungeon.
Its a cliche response because its a cliche complaint.
I apply to 16s all the time on my 440 main because I am farming crests. What is wrong with that? I get accepted to many, get declined sometimes (I guess by people like you) and run my own key(s) as well. I mostly run 16-18s, as that’s what I enjoy.
It wasn’t unintentional on Blizzards part to have good players carry the worst players this game has to offer in crest farms. This is Blizzard throwing a bone to the beggar, horrible player dept.
There expectation is to build a composition that will maximize the chance for success. As Hpellipsis said, if a lower ilvl/IO player queues up and there are 10 others in queue with higher ilvl and/or IO, why on earth would you take the lower player? Why would you want to lower your chance of success?
My guess is that you rarely (or never) have formed your own group to see how quickly the queue fills with applicants that just want a missing dungeon score or vault slot. Overqualified players will do this often for just that reason if they’re pugging in the first place (many have fixed teams or a rotating roster of friends so they don’t have to pug).
Fun little fact regardling ilevels: now you only need to run 16s to get GV loot on the myth track, which you can then take to 447 with 2 aspect crests.
It should always be below the ilvl that the content drops baseline, but people in pugs often tend to expect an ilvl that’s about as high as anything you can do solo.
Average competency, though buying runs can skew that.
At minimum you should have the average item level of what the end of run chest drops, but with my keystone range (levels 17 to 20), I usually set the minimum to item level 440.