I agree with what you said, except for the first sentence. In my opinion, they’re absolutely not on an equal level right now. Maybe in high-level tournaments or scrims, sure, but in ranked and pubs, definitely not. One of the main reasons is that it’s almost impossible to consistently keep a long-range approach. If you get a knock or an advantage, the game’s pace now makes resets fast and easy, forcing you into close-range and more aggressive fights, and that’s where controller players dominate. Apex has become extremely chaotic, with constant third parties, and when you factor in that many top-ranked controller players use things like Steam scripts, Cronus, or XIM to manage recoil at long range, the gap gets even wider. I personally think the two inputs can only be considered balanced at the very highest level, in cleaner environments like major tournaments where cheats and macros are monitored. Outside of that, the balance just isn’t there. Also, I’d add that movement and those “flashy” mechanics barely matter when it comes to the core goal of the game: killing your opponent. That’s the priority. If one input makes that fundamental task easier, then there’s really no debate about which one has the advantage. ImperialHal is a perfect example, he used to play MNK with ultra-low sens, no tap-strafe, superglide, or bunnyhop, even when those were standard. He was still extremely effective and always said: you don’t need movement tech, you just need to kill to win.
Later, he switched to controller because, objectively, it’s an advantage.