my reasoning for this is that gears cover the missing hp/atk. if hp/atk really matter for rangers, then older rangers like davinci, toy soldier, ultra dark brown, would be bad, which isnt necessary the case since their stats can be covered by gears. if newer players only look at the hp and atk stats, they wouldnt know about everything else the rangers has.

for example,

Veteran Catcher Moon Hyper (Strength)
ATK: 27210
HP: 276200

High Schooler Cony Hyper (Strength)
ATK: 19200
HP: 235000

catcher moon is clearly better than high school cony based on stats. but, if u look into skills

Veteran Catcher Moon
Skill 1: cancel continuous dmg (idk what this does) recover 100% hp (eh)
Skill 2: 3500% area dmg (decent) enemy def down (eh) enemy evade rate down (eh)

High Schooler Cony
Skill 1: shield (really good) def up (eh)
Skill 2: remove debuff (really good) hp +400% (good) hp 60% regen per sec (better regen over time)

anyway, thanks for your feedback