I think we can agree that the main balancing issue is the huge gap between "floor" and "ceiling".

I wasn't ignoring the ceiling by the way. My argument is that the ceiling equals a tiny fraction of the player base and is hence not as relevant as it appears to be on the forums, reddit, lemmy, youtube, ... where it is overly represented.

And even, if I count in the "floor" of players doing end game content, we are still talking about a minority of the player base total.

What needs to be done is narrow the gap which means

• help players to "git okay" (as you put it). But this shouldn't be mostly rely on external resources and the players investing time to prepare. The game can still do far better in this regard, Also, it takes way more than 10 or 15 minutes to get from "having no clue" to "know what you are doing". Copy/Pasting a build does not help very much. You need to learn why you make those choices and in this regard many external (build) resources are not very good either.
• limit the DPS increase you can achieve by reaching perfection. I don't mean a hard cap, but a flattening curve that throttles individual DPS the higher you go. Which means that the best of the best can still compete against each other but are not as easily capable of carrying an entire squad.

Meanwhile the "over-performers" could run less OP builds, equip white gear or play naked, if they find the content too easy. Yes, I'm kidding. But just a little. 😎

Or maybe I have to wait until GW2 goes into maintenance mode like GW1 where overperforming professions/builds, e. g. Mesmers, are no longer nerfed. So I can run a meta hero team with 5 Ineptitude/Energy Surge Mesmers, a Blood is Power Necromancer/Ritualist and a Soul Twisting Ritualist or have it less OP but with more flavor and include a traditional front line. a Minionmancer and Monk healers.