Gear fear is ruining the game for everyone.

Nobody is actually against PvP progression

Everyone wants to progress in the game.
Everyone wants some kind of unique advantage so that gameplay at 0hr and 50hr has a different dynamic.
If not, the game would be reduced to a progression-less arena deathmatch title.

"..but PvP should be fair!!!"

But when someone suggests that a Legendary Jupiter should at the very least be more useful in PvP than a Stitcher or a Ferro, bunch of players complain "If you want PvP advantages just because you played longer, go play another game! Fair PvP balancing is what makes this game great!"

Uhh.. Expedition bonuses aren't unfair PvP advantages??

However, I haven't seen a single complaint that expedition bonuses would make PvP unfair. Everyone is complaining about the high 5mil requirements, but nobody is asking for the reward to be limited to stash space and skins that don't provide gameplay bonuses.

Why is everyone quiet about expedition bonuses?

I know why. Expedition bonuses aren't lost on death. That's why everyone is chasing the bonus, and nobody wants it gone - because they would lose a goalpost to chase without it.

Gear fear = "I don't want rare items to be powerful because I'm too scared to use it myself"

As for gear, you lose them on death.
And a large portion of the playerbase suffers from extreme gear fear.
They have 10 Jupiters in stash that they are too scared to bring topside.

So, if they aren't going to use it, nobody should gain a PvP advantage from it either - this is their rationale.

In short, gear fear makes the playerbase ask the developers to infinitely nerf the higher tier items because "If I'm too scared to use it, I don't anyone to use it either".

As a result, we have this extremely bland PvP balancing where gameplay at 0hr is identical to 100hr, and 200k worth of gear doesn't provide noticeable edge against a free kit.

The advocates for this bland balancing argues that unfair advantages would kill the game, but they also grind the hell out of expedition to chase that skill point bonus. If that's a hilarious lack of meta-cognition, I don't know what is.