If everyone just had kick, the same stats, and we made a level playing field for hp, removing all those buffs that skills and better stats give, we'd have a more balanced game.

It would be a lot less fun though because
- less variety
- less replayability
- more predictable battles in terms of what your enemy will do.
-less customisation

These things are what keeps the game fresh. Does anyone believe that legacies should be removed because they are permabuffs? Legacies may be fewer than edges, but they are generally more of a game changer.

Edges that were crazy have gradually been nerfed (some to the point where I can't say for sure that they do anything at all), so they seem reasonably balanced, apart from one thing. That thing was some people not having many. But what we seem to have some is taken from those who had and from those who haven't.

It's a bit like increasing everyone's taxes, giving them nothing extra in return, and telling those whose taxes increased the least that things are better because other people's taxes increased by a lot more, closing the gap for them. They are still left with less to work with, regardless of whether their competition had been hit harder. It risks being a race to the bottom.

My character is well into maturity, and yet I would still love it if I had, for example, 30k observation exp as a challenge to work towards. It wouldn't be easy. I'd likely die trying to get it. But it would be a good challenge during quiet times, and the edge(s) I'd still pick are not game changers. I doubt an evemy could conclusively identify that I even had them, after seeing them in action.