Exactly, that's why runescape and world of warcraft have adopted the marxist game mechanic of automatically redistributing all resources and exp between all players at the end of every day.
If I were a kid and there was some game where my one of my peers always won because their parents let them spend literally hundreds of dollars on advanced gear that would cost me months of gameplay hours, I wouldn't want to play it. The game's updates and design would probably drift towards rpping off that kid's parents instead of maximzing fun. For some people, this is already real life for them.
In WoW, if my peer has a rare sword, it's not because his mom bought it.
It is exactly that dynamic of actually being predictably rewarded for hard work that people are finding in these games.
Redistribution schemes may seem just but they are very seldom anything approaching fair. Its no surprise that they almost never appear in any game mechanics.