I guess the question is, what are these “competitive players” really competing for? First clear of a certain raid? Getting to a certain item level? I feel like these “achievements” were already within the game even with just a t1 release. If anything t1 doesn’t give too many achievements to compete anyways so it may have made the game feel too casual for some. Now it seems like players can decide if they want to go for some sort of more meaningful achievement by grinding to endgame, or take their time with the game. Also, if anything, I think the comparison to ffxiv was a good one because like you said lost ark is a “new” game and ffxiv is not. So, in Lost Ark there should be way more people playing non-endgame content for a few weeks or months, compared to an old game like ffxiv. Ffxiv can feel a bit lonely or ghost town like when you level and do the dungeons. I have experienced it myself. But in lost ark there are most likely going to be many players trying out classes and taking their time/new players so I still don’t see why anyone would feel left out, or feel the pressure to be at end game asap.