I've also noticed players who are missing or lacking PvP gear completely are getting absolutely melted in arenas. Players with no gear are getting killed in seconds by just a few weapon taps.
went into arenas and was against a level ten. kept one shotting him until i felt bad and let him win. tbh I do not really mind because in the past you had to have pvp gear to survive in arenas.
in the past there were no buffs in arenas so you had to have pvp gear to survive or you would get wrecked by a pvp player. I liked it better that way personally but pvp gear was stronger than pve then also.
I think this absolutely should be how it is in open world. People shouldn't be able to mix PvE gear with PvP gear and be far stronger than a player in full PvP in my opinion. In arenas though, it seems a bit too discouraging to newer players that they can barely survive for five seconds haha.