they pretty rarely increase player level or gear level

Hell, it's never been done except for once early on in the game.

Level cap has always been 80.

Gear cap was Exotic, then Ascended (~14% better) was released shortly after (I want to say within a year?) and ever since then, for 5 years, it's been Ascended. There's Legendary gear but it's the same strength as Ascended, and simply has a QoL change where you can change its stats on the fly, for free.

It's an amazing system for jumping in and out of the game - plus, you can change the stats on your Ascended gear for a small fee (maybe 5-7g each piece depending on the stat combo you want).