While the Sengoku Astray Gundam in the anime has swords that are similar in practice, I think our starting Gunpla should be toned down and less-reliant on special powers or particle gimmicks. After all, none of our characters are kid geniuses and probably don't know the full potential of the Plavsky particles yet. We're just shooting for this US youth tournament; the high-tier Gunpla with those godly abilities are mostly world-class.
Good argument there. Seeing this is a few years after Build Fighters and two years before Try I can say there can be some innovations becoming the norm. Miss Lindemann and Red Hot would be strongest fighters in the RP so far but that can be explained with their experience and skill as builders. I haven't revealed the secret of Miss Lindemann's Sandesgeist yet and in her full capacity it is a lot stronger.
For students I can say this can be nerfed as being unable to catch up with everyone else later on, a flawed prototype or unable to make an improved model later on.