Regardless of whether or not they should or should not be the same, borrow elements from one another, or be completely bereft of one another - BPOs AND APEXs betray the core game design of Dust 514 which is the 'Endless Cycle'. This used to be all the rage back when Dust 514 actually had marketing but I'll give everyone a refresher of what that core game design was:

- You fight. You earn ISK.
- You use ISK to buy gear.
- You use that gear to fight.

BPOs of -any- type throw a pipe wrench in that entire core and provide a fundamental exception toward that game design. Militia BPOs would be fine because they have higher PG/CPU costs than standard gear, often are far worse, etc. They provide you something to fall back on in the eventuality that you go broke from excessive spending and losses. Standard BPOs and APEXs only provide power creep and devalue not only the equipment and gear they're designed to permanently replace but the core structure of the War Based Economy that this game has been founded upon.

The only backing BPOs and APEXs have is that "they help new players stay afloat" - but that is a fallacy because that was the entire point of Militia BPOs and Starter Fits. BPOs and APEX suits serve no other purpose than to pull in revenue for CCP and to institute rampant power creep.

"CCP has to make money"
This is the biggest fallacy because CCP can make money off of Boosters, SKINs, and normal BPOs. Had APEX suits not been introduced, this argument wouldn't stand because that was the same argument applied to BPOs prior to their introduction. APEX suits are simply a higher priced variant of BPOs that further impact the overall design and balance of the game through power creep.

Why use Militia when Militia BPOs are free?
Why use a Militia BPO when a Standard BPO is better?
Why use a Standard BPO when an APEX is better?

"Casuals can't enjoy the game without APEX suits"
Largely the same argument as BPOs. You start out with free, Starter fits that never go away. You can purchase Militia BPOs, you can purchase Standard BPOs - why do you need the APEX? Because it isn't competitive? That is a fundamental flaw of power-level based design and exactly why we want Tiericide to begin with.

"This game isn't for him is the wrong approach"
I don't disagree, but I also don't think that is a proper justification for destroying the core design philosophy of the game or impacting the potential economy through a ham-fisted attempt to make the game better for him. Even still, there are much better alternatives.

"Much better than the free stuff, much worse than the top tier by far"
This isn't the case anymore, now that we have similar slot layouts across all tiers, hence why APEX now has to be more powerful because they are the pipe wrench in tiericide, not the other way around.

"By all means condemn CCP for a clever way to make money that isn't pay-to-win"
Actually, it kind of is - unless you spend exorbitant amounts of time grinding out FW for those very same suits. Which if the argument is that these suits are for new players, we're expecting those new players to go broke (because there are no ISK rewards in FW!!!!) in order to get them.

By that logic there would be other alternatives with which to introduce new revenue streams that appeal to different players. I'll ask again, why do you need an APEX suit when BPOs are already available?

I see, well, I don't really have a lot of cash to spend on APEX Suits. Can I purchase Advanced BPOs now? What about Prototype, or Officer?

So because there are differences in fittings, that is the grounds for justifiying power creep through better levels of BPOs? If there aren't massive disparities than there would be no justifiable reason -not- to have full customizable Prototype BPOs with full PG/CPU values.

Than we will have to, but fundamentally the core game design wasn't meant to revolve around the new player being exempt from the economic downfall of his poor decision making. What consequence is there to run APEX suits? How is it in any way fair for the guy that runs Standard gear, let alone having to pay for it every time he dies? Are we going to be issuing out free APEX suits for every player to support this hand-holding?

Short-term thinking. Imagine if we had ISK efficiency metrics that we could actively and accurately track. Compare a player who runs Proto, consistently, versus a player who uses all BPOs, consistently. Who do you think is going to have the higher overall ISK efficiency, especially if those two meet? The BPO user has everything to gain but nothing to lose - thereby, in ISK Efficiency terms, the Proto user will more than likely (if not always) lose in those terms. Do you feel that that is in any way fair? That one player is basically forced to use lower tier gear in order to get that same ISK cost exemption to artificially boost his efficiency?

But I'll ask it again because I haven't gotten an answer: Why are APEXs allowed to over-shadow Standard BPOs? Any justification you could apply to APEXs must also be applied for the justification for Prototype BPOs. APEXs were a betrayl toward the overall community that accepted them because they -WERE NOT- customizable. Now that they are fully customizable, there is no reason for them to exist because they distort the balance spectrum - regardless of cherry picked, anecdotal evidence.

APEXes aren't P2W by any means

BUT

they are very bad design as they make so many parts of the game (other well designed items) obsolete.