There would be no gap.
By the time you "retire" at level 33 to get that special point, you could have retired 4 times and earned a MW plus change which would cause a much higher impact. Under the old XP system you could abuse it, but with the new cap at 1450 xp per base tick, no chance in hell anyone could do this enough to make any appeciable impact.
A guy using a level 4 weapon against a guy using a level 3 weapon, level 3 armour, and level 1 gloves? Pretty clear who has the advantage there assuming same skill levels...
The difference is that only the people which have majority of their stuff at +3 or heavily loomed would even consider this, thus giving them the "room" for more superiority via items.
Noone sane, without 1/2stuff massively loomed would even consider that.
Oh and the guys that would go for the +4 play about x5 the amount that people who wouldn't, so you cannot compare equal time invested.
EDIT: Case in point - Leshma.
