I am sorry grim but I can not agree with you because of my expierience I had on the ladder
when I played the ladder years ago I buffed myself 3-6 times every reset, about 700 stamina each time, then I had to use 100 stamina attacks (not 50 stamina like pvp season, that is double stamina)
I had to 100 stam on the BB too because you could get pvp rating if the same player was in your band too
I lost a level or more on the ladder every reset
after about 4 months I got my dominance medal (my pride), about 130 ladder tokens, lost more than a 100 levels, thousand of fsps to buy potions, stamina and buffs
the 130 ladder tokens took me 16-17 weeks (4 months)
12 EPIC skill potions took them 1 week
130 ladder tokens are less worth that 1 EPIC skill potion, they got 12, not 1
in 1 week I used 25-30k stamina
then I had to get my levels back, donated and got AL500 xp booster potions for help, it took me months to get back my levels with AL500 xp booster potions
the pvp ladder did not give you any helpfull potions to help with getting back the lost levels but the pvp season does, it gives you not 1 potion but 12 EPIC skill potions and 1 EPIC potion has more than 1 skill
grim, if you do not believe me then ask every pvp ladder player who pvped back then