Its normal that new sets should be stronger than the old one
#Complaint About the New Item System
glacial wren
severe pasture
I’d agree with your point if realm was actually “good” content. I think Giiku already made it known that realm was horribly done by the previous content overseers. Nothing but mega tanky mobs out of our lvl range packaged together with a poorly optimized recipe system for endgame gear that had to be reduced and still is absurdly annoying to craft. I’m sure the satisfaction after making just one piece was glorious though after all that work. But it was a bit much. They want to move in a different direction.
As with all new content in mmos, new gear is the next best thing. Realm is still good. Having the best weapons to craft using recipe is a good idea and satisfies that itch of creating the very best thing. I’m sure one day even these 118s and 120s will be old news. But from what I can see here it won’t be another 8 years before the next content update so we should be happy at the progress and look forward to more. 
hot herald
We absolutely do not like realm and won't ever use that as our reference for content
So sorry, but we will go another direction in terms of Equipment with Florensia