Probably more suited for a General Discussion section, but I got a spark while reading the latest Blizz post about M+ changes in this PTR, so will share it here.
So, what they mentioned (and what is to a big extent quite valid) is that Delves partially replaced the early M+ bracket and made it obsolete/redundant.
Now, I was thinking - Delves got promoted as a solo content progression. Yes, you can party-clear them, but in their core they’re designed as solo content. Yet, a lot of people, when gearing a new alt (me included) go to Delves first as it’s faster, easier, more effective to farm gear needed to jump straight into 7s and the like.
Now, we can assume game currently has like 3 separate pillars of content - PvP, PvE (Raids + Keys, as you can’t effectively count them as separate pillars, they’re somewhat interchangable PvE alternative) and Solo (Delves). And how did the gearing issue get resolved in one of the pillars (PvP) - by creating gear that is lower level and scales higher in the desired content you’re doing. It’s high enough to allow outdoor content (which is shared between all pillars) so you’re not at a disadvantage, but scale up only in your targeted pillar, so they don’t allow you to bypass entry level in the other pillars. At the same time, it does not allow players from the PvE pillar to farm M+ stuff and roflstomp you in PvP, as it does not scale.
So why not apply the same treatment for delves? Make it lower normal level gear and make it scale higher inside delves. Solo players can still be competitive outdoor, can have the greatest advantage when doing delves as gear will scale, but at the same time won’t force PvE players to run solo content and won’t allow Solo players to bypass M+/Raid entry brackets.
Now, this is a very rough idea, needs more fleshing out, but I think if it is properly developed, it might be a good change. What do you guys think?