"Less fun" is a matter of opinion.
You don't "need" the best skills/gear, you "want" them.
EXACTLY. This supports my argument 100%. Fun is something that sometimes many people can agree about, but often there are also people who disagree on what is fun and what is not fun. That is 100% understood and obvious, Okay.
You may not always "need" the best skills/gear, but sometimes you actually do because certain things may be extremely difficult or impossible without them. However, in the situations where they are only simply a "want" and not a "need" This does not automatically mean that every "want" is automatically an "ego" based want. Does something exist inside the game? Yes. Does it look really cool and make me feel like I will have more fun and increase my immersion? Yes. Okay well I want that skills/gear because I know I will have more fun. Maybe not everyone wants that, but it's an option in game, and I'm one of the people who wants to experience it. They put it into the game after all, they must know that some amount of people would really like it, they wouldn't put it in for no reason right? Maybe it's just realistic to the video game's lore. The point is, just because someone else thinks that something I want is less fun or not fun, or based on ego or pride, doesn't mean that this is what I am actually thinking, and my reasons may be different than someone else thinks. There are many different points of view, it's a very big beautiful and diverse world we live in.
Edit: to clarify, most games that forced me to min-max, in my opinion were not fun. I have yet to truly experience a game that lets me choose whatever I want, and allows me to min-max of my own free will without any limitations, so that I am able to do and choose what I want, but for fun reasons where I just felt like it, simply because it makes me happy.