Do these actually benefit the server?
Noob chars get to level quickly which negates the need for any effort but the people who really benefit are the people who have just been banned or suspended as they can get a reasonably workable character in a couple of hours...
People who have put the graft and more often than not the money in don't get the some loving.... Come on share the love...
Of course it benefits the server, it doesn't make any sense in not having catch up stuff to the new people.
If i were a new player just arriving and look at a 6-7 years server with lvl 183 people in the server and no catch up mechanics to reach that level, taking ages to get there not having much fun because im just one of few lower level players, not having much interaction with people of my level to do content for being a low level player and most of the players being high level, facing uberplayers max level and fully kited that takes what they want and do whatever they want..
Most of the games got catch up mechanics for all those reasons and more.
what love do you want ? if you are 183 ur already max level, even with catch up mechanics, they will still take ages to get to your level. What ur feeling is "i worked hard to get 183 but new players have to work less" but you forgot alot of things, the experience in playing with all other players on same level, doing content which is not outdated, that ur still max level and new players will still take a long player to get to where you are, you get new fresh blood in to the server, allowing the server to keep living ( do you want to play a empty server ? )
Imagine project server were still alive and getting updated, the server has the double of the years of arcadia, why would i ever join project server instead of arcadia if i would be so dam behind everyone ? there has to be something to pull me in to be able to speed up the process to reach the content and level of the other players.