Simplicity over complexity, time to change.

[Krr]

Have players discovered the mathematically best character in Ultra Street Fighter IV? Is there a mathematically superior color in any recent release of Magic the Gathering? Where are mathematically best choices in DOTA2 or League of Legends, or Pokemon even?

Have you ever played Dark Souls or Monster Hunter? What is the best weapon is in either of those games?

Dark Souls and Monster Hunter both feature vertical progression placed alongside horizontal progression. In fact, the only real difference in their progression structure from FFXIV is that the horizontal options have more breadth. There are even "BiS" sets for various weapons in MonHun for high levels of play. The rest of the games you mentioned are competitive multiplayer games in design formats that have nothing to do with MMORPGs.

And yes, we can prove the mathematically best characters in DOTA, LoL, Pokemon, and Street Fighter. Competitive scenes almost always feature option tier lists, which are actually derived from the real-life success rates of characters in various matchups. (DOTA and League, being team games, are a little more complex, mind you, but heroes still have matchups.)

(Right now, in Dark Souls 2, the best weapon is probably the Chaos Blade, with its high AR, wide swing arc, a pretty friggin' good thrust attack, and fast attack rate, that for some reason got buffed even though it was part of 'the meta' to begin with. Mathematically, it wins a hell of a lot of the time when evenly skilled opponents fight. Mathematically, this makes it a strictly better and stronger weapon than others in PvP. Don't get me started on the nonexistent choices in secondary options due to the massive tier gap for off-hand options.)