The thing about gw2
I don’t get your point. Are you saying a sub 80 player will have the same amout of utilities than a 80? Because if that’s the case, i remember my upleveled thief hitting for 180 backstab 2 years ago when i was leveling it. That’s less than 1/10 of what i do now. Ascended is already grindy enough for a “casual” game, gear tiers aren’t mandatory.
If you’re on EU and need help to get into dungeons, pm me.
When you solo content that some group of 5 can’t even do, you do feel really powerful.
This isn’t exactly a game of vertical progression. They want you to have a good experience from the beginning to the end.