Sadly true.
I hate the idea to run into a rare item to get it the first and I'm well aware people often slow me but I keep playing with friends or random people sometimes so I let them take almost everything.
But there could be some other problems with a system like PSO2 :
Someone who can solo RT could just log 4 different accounts to increase by 4x his chance to get a PGF at the end for example.
Also someone who started Ultimate would just need to join end game quest rooms thus will not only earn a lot of exp but also have as much chance as a Veteran level 200 who worked hard to find his item.
I believe on Ephinea, the more you are in a party, the lower drop rates are the harder drops are (Edit so there will be no confusion), so it compensates and make people more likely to play with same level players, which is nice.