This "actual" progression of which you speak, is what made 11 beatable. Abyssea is a joke, i solo'ed my ninja empy in like... 10 days or something, literally solo'ed nin/dnc. Then shortly after did about 60% of my whm empy before I asked myself "why and I playing this if I can solo the best weapon in the game".

People like/love to say its not asking for things being handed to you, and I guess you will never understand, that it is.