Level scaling is great. If a by product of being able to go to any zone in any order is that low level normal dungeons have wonky DPS meters. Yea, that's fine.
That's not the byproduct.
The byproduct is a horrible gaming experience where you are strongest at 110 and
get weaker as you level and it's not possible to have the same level of strength until probably a year into the expansion.
It's also not a necessary byproduct. I have no issue with concept of level scaling. The issue I have is with the implementation of the scaling math.
The solution to this problem is to scale based on the ratio between your current power and the absolute maximum power available in the game. If a 110 with Antorus loot is 87% of the maximum power, then you build the mob to be the desired challenge rating for a 120 and scale it down to 87%.
Blizzard doesn't release details about how it actually works, but I can prove that it tunes far below the median item level.
I think the lowest item level you can get on a piece of 110 gear is 157. There might be lower, but that's the lowest I've seen. At the high end, you have 280 helmet, shoulder, chest, a 280 necklace (which technically has no upper limit, so I'm not sure how they count it), and 210 gear drops from normal dungeons (before warforging). As I explained previously, that means you can get up to 227.5 from a normal dungeon at 110, making the gap 227.5 - 157= 70.5 item levels.
If they actually tuned for median, then normal Waycrest Manor would be appropriately challenging at 192.5. The problem with 192 is that is above Mythic 0 loot from Legion, which drops 182. 192 is what you got from Reliquished (Veiled Argunite) pieces. It's item level 910 pre-squish.
The Game Director said in no uncertain terms that the dungeons were tuned even for people who didn't have that level of gear, so it must be tuned to give an appropriate challenge far below 192. I will not be able to prove exactly which item level it's really tuned for because I lack the necessary data, but it's definitely below Mythic Dungeon geared (182). So we're looking at a range between 157-181.
The problem with doing it this way is that, as I proved with some quick and easy item level calculation math, even if you started at 160 item level, you are 174 the instant you get the BFA prerequisite gear. As long as all of your gear is level appropriate, it's impossible for you to be undergeared. You're only 8 points below Mythic Dungeon just for showing up. And you could get to item level 200 with as few as four loot drops.
Using the ratio of your current power to absolute maximum power would result in a much more consistent challenge. You could scale the dungeon all the way down to level 1 if you wanted and make it feel exactly the same difficulty. If you wanted to still reward people for having better than median gear, you could add that in easily with a formula to change the scaling slightly if they have better. You could even write the formula so it ignores below median gear, keeping it nice and easy for people who still have quest greens.
The constant strawman arguments and blindly defending Blizzard needs to stop. I don't think my 120 should be buffed. I think the scaling should be fixed so that my 110 isn't a god.
This is an issue that results in players being unhappy. There are a lot of unhappy players. Why are you ok with that? Do you think it doesn't affect you? It does.
If people quit, you can no longer play with them or benefit from what their existence adds to the game. There will be fewer people available to group with when a World Raid Boss is up. There will be fewer materials on the auction house. Your guild will have fewer people in it. Unhappy players affects everyone.
Feeling weaker as you level is not a problem that will go away. It will continue to exist any time you level an alt, even if the alt has bad gear. Even when they release catch-up to instantly get your 120 to 400 item level, you will still feel the weakness from 110 to 119. And as soon as the next expansion launches, it's all going to happen again.
Even if you think that the scaling is ok and feels fine, I promise you that it could work better. Easily. In a way that is easier to change and update, so content can be opened to wider ranges of players and with less manual work from Blizzard. That gives them more time for bug fixing and adding new content. You know, the stuff we want.
Leaving something this broken in the game is what causes the pre-patch issues where everything is one shotting you because whatever weird scaling formula they use broken the instant a stat squish came down the tube. Does no one remember "Everything is broken and we don't even know why" from last month?
This is a bigger issue than you realize, even if you think this is a big issue.