This game has serious free-rider problems and it's getting worse. A suggestion.

[Alaeacus]

I'll always agree to the game having some sort of soft rating or grading system to help players see their shortcomings (and give score chasers a chance to SSS+ rank everything if they want to). And I absolutely agree to the game doing a better job of teaching players how to play.

However, though, and it always comes up in threads like this, I think we need to stop treating under performing players as leechers who intentionally free-ride to get clears and loot. You have no idea why a player is underperforming and, as others have noted, the only real and legitimate "fail state" for content is to not clear said content. Maybe a player doesn't even know they're not performing well. Maybe a player can tell they're not doing well but doesn't know why because the game doesn't tell them. Maybe they know they're not great but aren't dedicated enough to spend their valuable game time outside of the game researching on third party sources how to get better. Maybe they have legitimate and real mental or physical challenges that prevent them from performing better than they do. Etc. Or, sure, maybe they are just a leecher who doesn't care.

Almost all of these "innocent" scenarios you described would benefit greatly from what you suggested in the paragraph before: An in-game feedback system that grades your performance and overall contribution level. Ironically, the same people who say "this game will only ever cater to casuals" are the same people who chase you with fire and pitchforks if you mention anything remotely similar to a parsing tool.

There are many many people in this game adamantly against anything that would suggest one player is better than another. We live in a Participation Trophy era.