That’s how most games of this nature work. The new cap is for the new content and new difficulty and it gives players a new goal to grind towards because they maxed out their GS500 builds. It wasn’t part of the year 1 pass because WONY is the start of year 2. You don’t buy a BluRay box set of a TV show and get episode 1 of the following season. They were up front about what would be in the pass and how much of the pass was early access vs exclusive content. It’s not as if they were vague about anything.
If you’re level 30 GS515 and play with level 40 players, you get boosted to level 40 so you can remain competitive with them on power level. Nobody is left behind.
The season pass holders did get the short end of the stick last year. Glad I wasn't one of them.
Yes, providing another tier of gear and new content is the norm for these types of games.
What is NOT the norm, is to implement an update that renders all gear useless and destroys your build in the process.
That's new.