Ehh, the average unlocked item in games like Gungeon might be "sidegrades" but your character's power level is generally driven not by the average item, but by

Ehh, the average unlocked item in games like Gungeon might be "sidegrades" but your character's power level is generally driven not by the average item, but by the single best item you found. And for that reason, unlocking a small number of exceptionally good items does tend to make the game much, much easier. Gungeon has quite a few things to unlock that greatly trivialize the game, e.g. Clone.