if you add every single missed opportunity over the last 4 years on top of not only the reduces prices for the pay to win options but also the quantity you obtain then probably that's how everyone got geared to the extent you see on those videos, however, here on NA not only the prices are more expensive but also you obtain less things for what you pay additionally one of the biggest factors we miss is the rewards from the game itself, because they add new zone, mechanic, or boss they add a small event related with it that increases the rewards to some extent, on the other hand, here because we get a consolidated of events we miss on every sale/event they add.
This is why we got shafted on this update, the monsters were officially balanced for a player base that got countless of opportunities to gear up over the extent of the years, from sales to mini events, opportunities that never got here, instead we got sales to satisfy the greed of sales department that probably backfires them in the foot and a reduced amount of events and rewards. Here what we get is endless amount of compensations to attempt to put out the fire in a miserable way.
If NCSOFT Kore really wants to standardize their service they need to start bringing up all the missed opportunities so we can catch up and to bring every region live with the same prices, Blizzard WoW does it, Square enix Final fantasy xiv does it, Mihoyo Genshin impact does it, endless amount of companies offer the same content live with same prices, perhaps they ship cheaper prices on more vulnerable regions but still the same content.