Interesting about Ala Mhigo doing it too. I don't remember having that issue in SB but it was probably because I didn't raid Deltascape so I never encountered the problem of Ala Mhigo actually becoming more of a nuisance in the DF. I never hit the plateau where the actual experts became easier with savage gear in the first tier of SB.

I really don't think it's intentional either. Really seems more like an oversight that's never been addressed because it's not that big of a deal. Just kind of wanted to point it out because a lot of these loss of RPG mechanics come at a rate of many minuscule things adding up over long periods of time that gut the sense of character growth. It's not huge to not be able to use your gear at all 1 out of 3 days in expert roulette, but it does add up over time.

It IS a little peculiar though that the day you get the regular story dungeon is the day you have the hardest time of the three possible dungeons due to scaling and the 440 sync. Unless they put people who queue for the expert in the regular 80 queue for it? I've never seen a first time bonus to know if that's true, I just assumed everyone who was in the expert roulette already had it cleared so there was no need at all for the story 440 sync.