My predictions

If you lived for damage, Devil's point of view is somewhat correct.

However we have to look at existing evidence: untradable equips for example, most untradables are actually stronger than relative equips but are usually rewards for making hands on effort to earn them; such as Chaos Zhelm or Chaos HTP. If anything, surviving a run to grab one isn't exactly NX given. The only time NX plays into it is using the Scissors to BYPASS that 'you must play' rule.

As for the potential system: isn't it possible to make % equips drops from monsters without even needing to cube for it? Of course, Miracle cubes are indeed a fast forward process compared to just farming the same equips manually. But NX has always been a fast forward button for the game. From 2x exp cards to get exp faster, to Gacha to secure mesos faster and thusly better gear, to Scissors of Karma to get things your characters can't survive.

NX = Fast Forward. Is it unfair? Yes but... as far as killing things for casuals, its not the case. As a true casual player isn't going to be competitive. now F2P competitive players will end up dead last however as they'll never progess as quickly as cash players can, but eventually there's a cap, and both F2P gear hunters and NX ones will hit it.

The only true disadvantage i see are these gacha only shoulder equips and face equips.

Heck, for casuals, the potential system actually boosted them up too! I tried out a brawler: From potential equips + the Dex from my class hat, i was able to make it to lv 60 with 30 dex cap without spending RL money to scroll up equips. This kind of runs contrary to the whole 'its ruining casuals' thing.

I started a new character in Mardia ealier this year because I was tired of Scania. Not only did potential gear made it easier, but I had no issues whatsoever finding several pieces of useful gear with great potentials (+% luk, +% hp). Now that BB is coming, I'll finally be able to train casually and still make good progress.

Why is it so hard for casual players? Sure, I do less damage, but with BB coming I'll still train plenty fast. Is anyone really worried about not getting into boss runs anymore? All of the bosses in the game worth doing are now down to a sceince; people get in, kill it, grab the loot, and get out. So many people are doing runs successfully of all sorts of monsters (D/C hackers not withstanding) that no one should have any issues with finding a guild/group to run with.

I think that people who play on the most crowded servers need to migrate to a less congested realm and then tell me what their opinions are. I'm not interested in any Scania player's opinion - I know everyone there thinks the game is going to hell because the entire server is like a Chinese shopping mall.