Well we need to be honest and assess the whole picture.
Lets remember Atomic was running an Imp MAKO FAL with 3.195 pec per use, back in 2015 and previous to that an IMK2. Both of those weapons were top of the game for their time (pre loot 2.0), and both needed level 100 to maximise potential.
The average Joe wouldn't have access to such weapons unless they were prepared to invest heavily to obtain something that good. We're now in the realms of new SIB weapons with equal or better stats such as FEN or token event won weapons. I expect the goal posts to have moved to accomodate that, but that's another argument.
So the weapon had more importance than the big ped card. That is without a doubt true.
Now I recently came back to the game (after a few month break) and was running Adj Det sword for a week or so, as my FEN mace was on free loan to a friend. I didn't want to go heavily so just ran an hour or two max and logged.
When I got my Mace back I ran a few hours everyday and all went quite well. It was only when I extended my time for more online play, did the globals gradually reduce over time. There's two things going on there, either the game is on a personal build until it decides to pop. Or the game is testing my resolve to accept losses for extended play.
It's quite interesting, as I was playing for once without any emotional attachment, and simply watching game dynamics to see how it would behave. I'm convinced there's a 'online' time based element to looting.
However even so, I was pretty impressed with the performance of the FEN Mace (whatever bugs were there when they first dropped had now been fixed). I could get a ton more kills completed for the same cost of using a less efficient weapon.
The point is the weapon is king rather than the bank roll. I think 2-3K peds would be pretty adequte to run an equlivlent of FEN LR40 or FEN Mace both with 79.8 efficency (excluding attachments).
We simply share experiences, no one has the correct imformation.
It's just a game, all is cool. Keep smiling enjoy your day
Rick