Right, there’s that other problem where a combination of leveling causing gear to depreciate and stat bonuses increasing by level on gear means that you might be able to make interesting builds at max level but nothing before that point. Stinks.
I’m less solid on how I feel about rarity-gating. The idea that you need commons to make rares and legendaries special rings true and climbing the ladder in a Diablo/MMO-system where you barely find rares at low level and feel progression at high level because rares are trash can work under certain tuning, but I’d so much rather design the drop rates so that each one can be meaningful and useful.
Rarity drops in a system of constrained pulls, like a roguelike, are more meaningful because it represents a direct gamble win – you can’t just hang around grinding to get more pulls, so you can appreciate a rare drop as a victory.
I love the philosophy of Magic: The Gathering where rares are powerful but exotic and may have specialized uses, while commons are just as strong but in more down-to-earth ways. It’s tough to make that fit into a level progression system but I was happy in Shadow of War to see the community never able to reconcile whether the Legendary sets or the Epics were better because I specifically wanted that build flexibility.