The pros and cons of private servers

That depends on the server really. If it's high rate, it's pomegranate easy. If it's low rate, i agree.

not necessarily. for servers with rebirth, then its easy to be stronger because you can rebirth countless times and have 10k+ stat points. some servers sell 500atk weapons from npc too but those kind of servers are just for "testing a 4th job character" and really dont have much meaning.