When I say guaranteed, I mean like, for everyone. I believe every (there might be an exception?) dungeon has guaranteed potion drops for 2 or 3 people who reach SB. After that, it’s all random. But LH has guaranteed drops for every player who reaches SB. You could say this system is kinda toxic too because most people wouldn’t want to run with more than 2 people in total since their loot isn’t 100% guaranteed, whereas it is guaranteed with only 2 people. But whenever it IS guaranteed for everyone, which we see in the LH, the amount of potions being dropped is far too plentiful, devaluing the loot dropped. But regardless that’s not something I’m arguing for or against.
To cut this short, I do agree with your main argument of people mainly wanting to play DPS classes then. I don’t think it would be a huge increase, but definitely a noticeable one. But as of right now, there is no logical reason to have super high DPS in 99% of situations, the 1% being speedruns or in fights where there’s absolutely no chance of you dying.
Think about it: In a permadeath, where the loot system is so merciful that you basically have to sneeze on the boss to get loot, what is the point of building more damage? With 20 people for example, you increasing your DPS by like 400 is maybe gonna make the fight go by like 1.5 seconds faster. What is the point of not just slapping on a Decades, a Soulless (Fplate or whatever else tanky) and still getting the exact same loot as someone who does way more work than you? IMO, it’s kinda boring.
You say most people will play high damage based classes and while I don’t think the increase would be huge, is it necessarily a bad thing? Maybe I’m arguing for a different point here; that the game is too forgiving for playing like a pussy and that HP and DEF are way too abundant in many items (yes, I get it, no one wants to lose their character, but why try to be ballsy when the group will do everything for you?), but the SB system is definitely a part of it.
I think it’s all in the implementation of the system. Conceptually, I think it’s pretty sound, but of course, lower DPS classes will get less loot compared to the higher DPS classes, which is why it could be scaled appropriately. This would be very complex, but if the game could calculate your maximum/minimum/average damage output (based on your stats maxed, equipment you’re wearing, etc) and base your loot on that, you would be encouraged to actually do put in some effort. This way, no matter what class you’re using, you would still have to actually play the game to get rewarded.
Of course, you’d still have an edge if you had a higher maximum damage output, but it wouldn’t become toxic, since you still have to play the game and try to deal considerable damage. I’m going sort of off-track here, but for a good portion for your arguments (DPS-centric classes being played more, ST’s always able to be bought because they bring in $$$), I have to concede. You make a very fair argument, but as for the rest of them, I think we should agree to disagree. IMO, it’s all in the implementation, since there is definitely some balancing needed here that would be best for all.