Hello new player and welcome to the game!
There is some legitimacy to the issue you’re mentioning here, but I always like to direct people as to WHEN this talking point ACTUALLY matters.
And by that, let’s look at your claim on one case for simplicity; Marksman hunter made mediocre overnight.
There are almost exclusively TWO groups of players who EVER hold these stances, even as far back as TBC era, and those umbrella buckets are “players playing at the top echelon of content/groups” and “players who are playing at a low level such that the easy/front loaded parts of specs are felt more than their entire kit”
If you’re in the first camp, that is to say that you’re a player operating at an M+ of greater than 20 keys, mythic raid racing, or 2000+ PvP rating, then you are a player who might have a legitimate basis. If you ARE at these content levels, then other factors begin to arise. In M+, Marksman as a whole can be slightly worse relative to the other two hunter specs, but that information is really only useful for true PUGs. When pugging, meta choices may impact how easily you get INTO keys, but some specs just have better potential to carry party slots harder in PUGs. In formed groups, which is what the majority of M+ consists of at this level, a different pattern emerges. As you start into your 18-21 range, ALL DPS specs are VIABLE at random here BUT we start seeing composition beginning to matter a bit, but more importantly, this range is where we see player skill becoming the single largest success outcome for the content lane. If you are already playing alt #3 at this level, then a few things are happening here. For starters, your formed group comps may favor a MM hunter or another spec. And example of this is whether or not your group already has a lust or not (lowers the drawback of MM and the value of Surv/BM), and what kind of damage profiles your group brings. MM is unique in that while it may not be top dog in either AoE nor ST damage, it does have the ability to lean into other very well AND can operate in a space where it carries respectable AoE while offering a meaningful funnel.
At this level of play, M+ isn’t JUST about your numbers on the meters, but whether you’re sending numbers to the right places. MM sends less than the other two specs in their lanes BUT MM has a unique damage profile that helps it to ALWAYS be CAPABLE of sending damage to where damage matters. If you play DPS to see big meter numbers, that’s a trap for pushing in M+ end game UNTIL damage is the bottleneck. Damage output of specs is rarely the bottleneck until the low-to-lower-mid 20s in S1 content tiers.
As you approach this range, the best M+ players change their mindset whether mindfully or not. Instead of focusing on JUST damage, the name of the game becomes “time value”.
A survey hunter who can consistently burst 180-200k+ could easily top an MM on meters over a key BUT if that damage isn’t meaningfully saving time, it may as well not exist.
And example of this would be the imps on CoS. In most cases, it’s often better to just AoE interrupt/stun and toss kicks out, resulting in lower DPS, because you’re already cleaving mobs who will have higher health, and barring some spicier pulls/routes, often near packs where those CDs are better spent. A surv hunter can EASILY burst in these imps, sniping meter pad from other DPS…but as long as those imps die first and don’t kill the group, all killing them faster does is create a safety buffer for misplays; misplaying less and less makes those pulls less valuable to send damage like that on unless you can pull spicier to make it count. And MM in that scenario will often meter far less total DPS, but will also have comparable MEANINGFUL DPS in those pulls.
The surv spec may be more CAPABLE of delivering that burst, but if your group isn’t doing anything to make it count, there’s virtually no EFFECTIVE difference between surv and MM in that most slots in that key for the overwhelming majority of players at a level they play at.
There IS a point where the spec shift can matter when pushing the content, but the level of when that starts to even matter over just playing a spec and mastering it is fairly niche. I’ve personally got a friend who gets all the “youre on MM post patch?” and still sends harder than people at higher ilvls than him at this content range while capable of executing his role properly. Sure, MM may be relatively weaker as a spec on paper, but the level of player skill needed to realize that difference is quite near spec mastery AND the content level for it to matter is quite high.
And that’s before you factor in that in some groups, that hybrid damage sender that can contribute AoE while funneling can be a powerful slot; this is often the major reason rogues stick around every tier. If your group has THREE such hybrid slots, your group is going to feel awkward. What MM does better in composition compared to the sibling specs is that it can flex into more M+ roles.
If you have one slot left in your group, adding a Surv or BM may not offer as much benefit as they are capable of because you already have a fat warrior and a Pres Evoker in your group, while a MM could adjust their spec a bit and fill in the gaps. In scenarios like this, Surv is the better spec in general, but in this specific group, the value Surv brings is diminished (already have list and big AoE send, and interrupt coverage) whereas the value of MM is NOT diminished, and thus MM becomes relatively stronger in this comp IF it matters.
Which brings us to the raid end game lane. Mythic raiding really only cares about comps for buff coverage and cheeses/punching up. Outside of races though, be it RWF or server races, most players will see FAR FAR more return from tighter play and their gear.
RWF often highlights that many specs can get the content done at way less prep and relaxation. Often, skilled players will get the content down while it’s harder and with less output than the average player will see by the time they enter raid.
For example, a raid can certainly point out someone not pulling their weight for their mythic slot, but most people absolutely suck at HOW to determine that. “Lower than tanks” is a mentally light method for shorthand for pugs, but most tanks with a chunk of gear and tier can dish out more damage in the tank slot than a DPS needs to do to carry their weight.
The first boss in mythic raid is a GREAT example of this. Groups tend to go and send hard from start, leaving the ring add phases tighter on CDs for most specs. This is great for parsing and meters, and if you can easily handle the transitions with the lower DPS in those phases, then you send. But mechanically speaking, the double ring phase is the ONLY real check on that fight, and if you’re not sending hard from start because it’s on farm, then everyone sending in start is almost purely for meter parses/pad. If those ring adds are dying but it’s close or not comfortable, even one or two DPS tanking their parses to hold CDs for those adds can be the difference between a night of wiping on that boss versus an easy kill. It’s easy to fall into the “I do less in meters” trap and forget that sometimes giving up dam on the easy phases in exchange for dam on pushes is BETTER for the ENCOUNTER itself. All of that is to say that even if someone can send 150k+ on the start, that a MM hunter who holds to send on adds may do tens of thousands less total DPS compared to Surv or BM, BUT will have more meaningfully contributed to the fight if the group is struggling to cleanly transition (which is often the case BECAUSE everyone sends and repeats until they outgear it or perfect it). Outside of races? It doesn’t even matter. If you can show up doing just 40k DPS and just execute on mechanics and stay alive, you’re already doing more DPS than needed for the majority of Mythic raiding this tier. More DPS is a buffer, but it’s the gear crutch trap.
And PvP shares a similar pattern, in that you can basically play anything to 2k if you play that thing well. Every expac we see a variety of complaints and claims about PvP and gear and specs, but ultimately the data ends up scraped and shows that regardless of spec and gear, the highest rated players are those who MASTER their spec and role; experience and skill, until the top end play, carries more weight than spec and gear.
Though the one thing that PvP has different than the other two is that as you’re not playing against a statically challenged environment or a predictably scaled environment, the weight of someone underperforming is more heavily felt, especially as the numbers go down.
The impact of an individual player in combat in 2s is far higher than in 3s, and higher yet than BGs. If you throw a strong player with solid game sense and reaction time into 2s, those players can typically play basically any spec they want and getting to 2k is just a good few days this week. Comps eventually matter, but skill and tight play often trumps/overcomes matchups until skill between teams starts to even out.
And that brings us to bucket #2. If you’re not in that 21+ or “last two Mythic bosses” or “pushing up beyond 2k rating” club…then you’re in the camp of player where your perception of the game is skewed. This player sees the INITIAL relative strength of specs but never the kit. This player knows that a resto druid healer is the best healer and a disc priest is the worst, and they cannot play disc to save their life and they switch to resto druid and it’s far easier to start and their confirmation bias is reinforced. So this player switches classes every time there exists a notable disparity or their classes gets nerfed enough to have challenges from content they deemed easier.
But the irony of THAT group is that they STAY in that group BECAUSE they role up new alts and switch when nerfs or buffs go out. The reality is, the majority of players who ever make your argument belong to this bucket, and the greatest irony is that they would be better if picking a class and sticking with it until mastery, at least once. Often, these players stunt their player growth because they don’t play well enough to lean on their skill as heavily so they lean on the low hanging spec changes instead.
If they just stop doing that and REALLY learn ONE spec intimately, such a player will play a potato spec better than the average player is going to play better specs. You see it every expac, often as Arcane Mage/Surv/Feral/S Priest. Those specs are notably worse than their peers, for much of WoW’s history, but crossing paths with a master of these specs was often a “oh dang, that guy is CRANKING” moment.
TLDR: If you’re playing proficiently and at a content level high enough for nerfs and buffs to matter enough to swap, you’re playing at a level that a SLIVER OF THE TOP 1% of players are at, and swapping for min/max at THAT point is par for the course. And if you aren’t? Stop swapping specs and classes every time you see waves of nerfs or buffs incoming, because you’re exactly the level of player who NEEDS to break their limits and really MASTER a class
And if you don’t care enough to master the specs youre playing end game content at…
…then why do you care about min/maxing in the first place?