For a game like overwatch, which has a fairly large competitive scene and multiple hundred thousand dollar tournaments? Yes, the balancing should be focused around the highest competitive level, and people who haven't spent as much time playing are usually not in that group. If someone has a favorite hero, any change short of Symmetra's rework will give them some pause, but it won't radically change their playstyle.For the competitive community, 1/10th of a second longer on an ability or a 5% change in damage output can cause a huge change in strategy.
For a game like Titanfall 2, which has a few small competitions but is mainly a pick up and play game? No. There are a few exceptions (Hemlock, Devotion, and Tone are all universally OP in almost any level of play- If a Tone player and a Ronin/legion/northstar/etc. of exactly equal skill, Tone will win or it will be a tie), but in general the game shouldn't be balanced to any one level. Northstar will never be effective in the hands of an inexperienced player, Kraber/double take/ other long range weapons that require precision hits on moving targets won't be used as much either, spitfire isn't used much over other weapons in higher level play (that I've seen), etc. etc.. That's something to be said for keeping some weapons easy to use for new players, and overall I think respawn has done a pretty good job of doing that!
