Even if that’s true, there could have been other ways to deal with this. For example, instead of having three mastery levels that unlock the same thing, you could replace those with a set of “tiers” with a theme. This way all players get to unlock at least the first tier that contains the essential item. You put increasingly less essential items on the other tiers and maybe a suit at the end.
Ex:
Master thief
Unlock 1. Lockpick
Unlock 2. Crowbar
Unlock 3. Training Gear Suit
Or, I dunno, you just reshuffle all the essential items on the H3 levels.