What's the point of leveling? Getting weaker as you "progress" isn't fun.

Honestly, the more I play BFA this seems like the biggest design issue to me. I know every xpac has had this to some extent, but BFA is by far the worse. We gain nothing as we level, and even if you wern't super geared in legion you lose power with every level. Hitting 115 in particular feels like a cliff. I'm currently leveling my 4th 120, and the jump in difficulty is just ridiculous. At 110 most my characters feel stronger than my 380 ilvl main. It's just completely ridiculous, not only do we get weaker with ilvl in open world, but leveling is actually a detriment to your character power (and for many classes, the way that character plays too). At this point, why is the level cap even raised? It just seems completely arbitrary, and instead of gaining anything when you level you feel as if you've lost something.