[Spoilers] I'm getting sick of shonen manga power-ups each arc

[RopeDrink]

Yet he also has lived in peace for quite some time and only has one part of a soul on top of that.

20 years out of the guts of a century. Do not assume that just because a small portion was not spent fighting Sin Eaters that it implies he was sitting on his hands doing nothing during that time.

We might not have decades worth of experience but the WoL has no problem beating such old masters in job quests quite often.

They are typically done in the context of passing a torch or surpassing training. I have not done them all but I'm going to assume not a single one of them has been fighting for 1.5 lifetimes as a military leader in a world caked in far more danger than Eorzea and also happens to be written as, you know, a primary antagonist to the MSQ.

As we see ingame most of the sin eaters dont pose a threat for us either.

Comparing power-levels based on standard gameplay against regular mobs is trite. Reminds me of the Vol'Jin debacle in WoW - poor guy was pretty much curb-stobbed by a regular Joe-Soap demon enemy that we've been killing repeatedly for years (outside of, you know, the story). In STORY context we were so overrun by enemies that we'd have all died if we remained, yet it was still just a bog-standard mob and that's all people take from it when they confuse story with gameplay.

We solo most of the normal ones and later even defeat certain lightwardens on our own

And which Lightwarden's did we kill on our own? None. They are dungeon bosses and thus one can only assume that, canonically, they required either the present Scions and/or Exarch or a party of fellow WoL's.

And while we are already affected by the Light.

Which only had a noticeable impact after absorbing the last Lightwarden.

We are able to defeat Omega and we defeated Middy in his prime even if it was a creation of Omega.

With big raids full of WoL's.

Also why was Minfilia always killed if she has such a "father" on her side.

This has nothing to do with his power. As you were told via the story, Ran was training them for combat, yet we know that a) no version of Minfilia has been all that much of a combatant and b) that Minfilia was donating her powers into a vessel, specifically children. You know, little buggers that aren't designed for fighting eternal wars with abominations, especially ones that don't need to do much to convert you into one. Let's keep Ran'jit's power and his ability to train little children separate, because not doing so is like pulling excuses.

And at the end we just level up a bit and defeat him anyways.

Like pretty much every threat, right? The whole point of an MMORPG is for us to get stronger, beit levelling or gearing, and take down the latest threats. It'd be a sad day if the game presented us as an unstoppable force who can wade into any situation and simply never be challenged, even when they are out of their element and battling a foe they know absolutely nothing about. How boring.

So seemingly we only need a few weeks at most to make up for decades if the plot demands it.

Real timeframe doesn't work here. As far as the story is concerned, the whole ordeal took a few days (represented mostly by sleeping at the Inn and give or take one or two story moments that actually transition from day to night, if any).

Honestly, it's like pulling teeth reading some of these posts. Ran'jit surprised us in a grand total of one duty battle, got beaten by Thancred and then ultimately grounded by the WoL. This is not comparable to Zenos legitimately stomping our faces in twice in a row, hacking up Y'sthola, toying with Lyse, then having to be beaten in Eikon-form after casually taking an actual beating when we 'levelled up' for the dungeon, and then having his mere body be controlled by someone else and almost secure an actual WoL kill thanks to Elidibus. I can understand when people are a little tired of Zenos' power-spike, but I can't fathom why so many people are questioning us being winded by an antagonist in their first encounter before getting squashed once we knew what we're dealing with. Boggles my cranium.

As far as I see it, we wade into the First, start learning of the plight there, learn of a century-long general who has been fighting Sin-Eaters longer than we've even been alive, who happens to be a martial expert (and with a few powers on the side) who winds us before we escape, ambushes us again only to be beaten, and then gets rushed in his home turf and beaten again. Where's the big deal here? I cannot (and never will) see it. It was perfectly fine.