The non-competitive nature of Monster Hunter isnt an excuse for the sloppy balance Rise(and Sunbreak) is in

While the LS debate is hot, I'd like to add my two cents regarding an argument that I don't fully understand why is being used to justify the fucking warcrimes being done to some of the weapons by Capcom

Yes, MH is a PVE game, and that absolutely means proper balancing is important, not for the sake of "competition" but to allow players to fully express themselves and enjoy the gameplay niche the game can offer, and that they were drawn torwards for one reason or another

When the lack of balancing eliminates the niches that these weapons had by design, the people that enjoyed using particular weapons find out that the reason they picked them up and spent time learning it isnt there anymore, because what they enjoyed about the weapon is gone, or outclassed to the point where the only reason to stick with it is out of "weapon loyalty" which means intentionally crippling yourself out of a potentially more effective, or more fun playstyle, which will negatively impact your experience with the game

Just think about the Hunting Horn changes that pissed off pretty much all the people that played and enjoyed the classic HH, or the overwhelming dominance of sticky builds over every single other ammo type for the bowguns, for both cases, these changes ended up reducing the weapons playstyles to something that was very different from the original designs and visions for these weapons, no longer you have to worry about proper positioning and improve your marksmanship with bowguns, sticky ammo ignores hitzone values, so you can shoot anywhere, the lowered defense doesnt matter, sticky has disgusting KO values to the point where anyone can stunlock the monsters to death and never have to worry about learning moves and getting good at dodging while maintaining good positioning and line of fire

No longer Hunting Horn has to deal with awkward movesets and complicated recitals, just get one of each note and breakdance until the monster dies

Ultimately, the balance issue on Rise isnt about "being competitive", is about allowing players to play the way they want and not being railroaded into just one effective way to play, with everything else just having you intentionaly cripple yourself for the sake of doing what you find "fun", its a matter of expression and the way you interact with the otherwise stellar combat system present on Rise, so yeah balance is pretty fucking important on a PvE game