I disagree, simply because AGS has chosen the B2P model.
They’ve adequately tuned encounters to be accessible to everyone, to the point that you can achieve a full 625 GS set without ever stepping into a dungeon. Everyone can at least experience the content even if they can’t complete it at the highest difficulty.
I think accessibility is good to the point that everyone gets to experience a baseline of everything the game has to offer. However, when the ceiling of your content is placed near the floor, the game actually loses a lot of its engaging qualities and fails to keep a long term following.
That’s part of why I think OPR is brilliantly designed. There are many welcomed strategies for players of all skill levels, and in the right conditions any of them can lead to victory. It achieved that by copying a lot of tried and true MOBA qualities.
Expedition/mutators are in a great place as well (IMO). For all the crying over Nereid being a non-traditional Angry Earth in a Lost expedition, it was a smart move for the game’s longevity as it opened up new variables to build around. Now, you don’t NEED to build around them to succeed, but it certainly helps and gives an optional difficulty meter to the encounter. You get out what you put in.
Anyone can clear Depths, but very few can clear M10 Depths.
You don’t want to exclude players from content just because they don’t want to develop themselves as a player, but those players are also the least involved in game which means you don’t need to develop a lot for them.
Much in the same way it’s easier to balance PvP first and tune PvE around that. It’s easier to design engaging content first, and then add accessibility options after that.
/rant
As for life staff, you can nerf/change healing all you want, but until you give other players a way to engage with (and counter) those mechanics, healing will remain a binary transaction. I think a more reliable way for players to apply disease is the way right now.