For myself and perhaps newer or returning players, doing Illusional Isle, Lush Reed Island etc is a waste of time, as people high end 1500s are mostly one shotting people under 1500. People under 1300 probably die from a glance or something.
It makes these islands less fun, I mean other islands have capped item levels, why not these?
Also why is the silver rewards in Rapport so bad now, where gold used to be? Are you saying a handfull of silver = several hundred gold, if so I would just use all my silver right now to buy it.
No, not everything gets reduced. There is a clear divide. Being one shotted at 1485 for example is not anything “reduced”. Also I am going on experience I had last year, took a break for 10 months to come back to this, there is a clear difference… very much so.