Would you raid if there was no ilvl?

[Dualgunner]

I think I should have worded my question better, when I said no ilvl restrictions, I meant as if gear progression wasn't a thing so raiding was always on skill alone. But I think the answer would have been the same.

There's merit to the idea that raiding should be based on skill alone, and item level bloat does allow people to cheese some mechanics due to the nature of needing to balance the fight so the minimum item level can clear it. There is a mode that is tuned specifically for one set item level right now, and that's Ultimate: it level caps at (UCoB: 345, TWF: 375), and is tuned with average (UCoB: 340, TWF: 370) being the minimum; this mode is tuned with the idea that skill alone is all you can rely on. However, it is tuned very very high, and the only reward is a title and an extra materia slot. Having said that, yes, I would continue to raid under the circumstances presented in the hypothetical, and in fact I have already performed a raid where item level doesn't matter and progression isn't the goal, and intend to continue and do the other Ultimate as well soon.

If such were the case, however, I'd expect the fights to be tuned much tighter, because at this point the only reward possible is prestige. Perhaps not at Ultimate level of difficulty, however I would expect fights to be much closer to Gordias and Midas levels of difficulty, or perhaps pre-nerf Second Coil difficulty.