I can't think of anything off the top of my head, certainly not in that specific scenario... but I would suggest that there are a ridiculous amount of games which get harder as you progress, I would even suggest that is gaming 101. D2 has a funny threshold, where you hit a reward tier and it then becomes easier until you hit the next reward tier... so this actually works well (ish)... but the new system will invalidate that and you have to make it genuinely harder to get the same gear within that tier.