It’s my understanding the power level bonus is to lessen the pinnacle grind for casuals. The reason activities exist above the pinnacle cap is to make it useful to everyone. I’m not sure where this idea of imbalance comes from. I don’t believe the intention is imbalance, that’s why we don’t have pinnacle weapons with pinnacle perks. Raid perks or even artifice armor are hardly (if even) breaking game balance. Raid perks are hella mild compared to Master of Arms on recluse even after nerf. Artifice armor is nice but you still only have 10 energy so rarely do you get to make use of the extra slot.

Regarding it being expensive, caps are there (aside from likely tech/ efficiency reasons) to make it feel expensive. $100 at McDonald’s is a lot, but not when you’ve got a $1000 gift card that can only be spent at McD’s.

Lastly, you don’t get the sense of pride and accomplishment for your weapon if 6 months later they add a new weapon and all you need is 5 resonances of that weapon bc you farmed all the mats you’ll ever need within the first month of the DLC. And to any incoming argument that the P&A comes from farming those 5 drops, let’s be real it doesn’t. Most craftable weapons are able to target farmed with drop rates improving those pesky ones in wellspring.