There is a simple solution to all this 'alt gearing'.

[LianaThorne]

In-game competitions usually have some sort of indicator or prize for "winning". I am asking what that is. If you're making up competitions and who qualifies for these arbitrary non-intended races, what responsibility does the company have to accommodate them?

If we're talking about savage raiding, world first is a big deal to the point that the devs got involved in the last one to remove someone cheating with plugins. Before they added the wait period between crafted gear dropping & savage starting, teams used to drop tens to hundreds of millions of gil for pre-orders so they could be the first team to actually get in there. There's no "reward" other than fame amongst the playerbase for finishing first or in the top 3/personal achievement/early mount flexing and that's enough for the hardcore scene.