Is Maplestory "Cheaper" then before?

This. Although I'm even willing to argue you don't need all that much damage at LHC either. Good party members >>>>> High damage (although of course, good party members with high damage damage is the best).

I feel the same way basically since I've gone from 110 to 150 without any problems at all with below-decent gear on one character. But, I do accept the fact that if you have a high amount of % gear you're going to do much better in LKC if you by yourself can 5-hit the monsters there.

Feels good though.

I think it feels better to be able to drop however much money you want at anytime you want in the game.

It's like $500 to be above average nowadays.

Average should be defined by the ability to kill monsters and train which anyone can do even with horrible gear. Therefore above average would be anything above that, so that means putting any amount of money from 10 dollars to 1000 dollars would put you above average.