[Festin]

Your theory is too crude. Just one example: if we again compare thugs and SCs, one of the main differences between them is that thugs are expendable, while SCs are not. So, you equip a thug, he fights in a couple of battles and gets killed. You hire another thug, equip him again, etc. A SC, on the other hand, is geared to be able to reliably survive most battles, so once you equip him you use him for a long time. Of course SCs also get killed, sometimes they stupidly die in their very first battle, but on average they are expected to last longer then thugs. Meaning you spend less gems on replacing lost equipment.