Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Exstal]

....and so players who aren't as "exceptional" as yourself will up and leave and all the exceptionals will find that there will be no more game Unlike years ago when there was little choice in the way of mmorpgs and devs could afford to not pump out so much content, and people stuck with a game for years...these days there are many more games out there, with 3 or 4 major titles arriving each year. More choice = people spread out over games, therefore developers have to listen to their bread and butter players...the not "exceptional" ones to keep enough subs coming in.

I said "cutting edge". There is no reason that one needs to beat everything in the same patch it comes out. See how Binding Coil turns 1 and 2 were accessible by a decent amount of people in 2.1 with turns 4 and 5 mostly being reserved to statics? See how now it's farming those turns when a new Coil is out? That's how it should be. The ones who strive to be the best will complete the content as intended, and those who either don't want to or can't put in the time, won't. They'll just wait until it becomes more accessible.

And why do you care if they get best gear?
Do you make challenging content because the challenge or because you can show something to others with the intention "I am better than you"?

I am not saying its a good idea, i just point to that arrogance!
Gear should help to progress if you are not so skilled and not used as a reward for clearing something hard to clear...

It's an MMO. The point of challenging content is to be challenging. It's not for story, that's what single player games are for. I know I wouldn't do normal Coil if a theorectical easy Coil gave the same gear. Extra effort for same reward is a waste of time.