Back in BOTS, the more you worked, the more you were recognized simply. The best grinders only rewards were to be recognized as the best grinders. It's kinda the same here, the only "OP" item you can 'earn' via playing and being skilled is Jura, since you have to rack up gigas to buy it from a player unless you bought it for perm. Oh and perm jack (and all other powerful high lvl items). But you don't have to be skilled to get those if you just merchant.
Point is, skilled players have never really gotten an OP item as a reward in the BOTS community's history.