People will, sooner or later, cry for tools to compare themselves, especially if there is challenging content. The more time goes by, the more and louder they cry. Because they have groups which are easier or harder to perform challenges with. If they always play the same, the main difference must be the skill level of the other group- or raid-players. And this means for them:
The problem is the limitation of space in groups and raids. If content is difficult then people are automatically classified in good or bad - either you can play your class or get lost, that's it. This is _not_ what _I_ like, but that's reality, get it. And there are two ways to solve that issue.
1. No group or raid limits - making zergs possible
2. Visit special zones and difficulty levels only in your preferred groups, resulting in faster or, in case of equally low-skilled-gamers, slower progression
Blizzard tried to reduce the problem by simply implementing different difficulty levels and, now, the LFR. People crying "Ohh, that's TOO easy" get automatically slapped their faces for not being able to shift to the next difficult level instead of doing too-easy-content and powerwhining forums. That's it: Put responsibility on gamers, not on developers.
But this does _not_ solve the problem as it comes back as soon as you hit normal or even hardmode zones. Then people, especially the one thinking of themselves how great they're doing, want tools to demonstrate that player X isn't that good as he or she is. Competitive gaming, known from PVP, "infects" PVE, which makes things curious: My best friend in raid is not only my best friend but my first opponent and if not him, then the idiot from last time - HAR, come, be my enemy...
And yes, you are right: This is also a form, a very bad form of putting the responsibility on gamers, not on devs - people are not blaming the lack of creating good fights without reducing everything on numbers, but are blaming, instead, each other.
For raid designers those tools are great. Not only they have proper tools for balancing, they also educate peoples to focus purely on numbers. If that point is reached the one and only target of a game is to implement items with higher numbers. And again. And again. And again. Till you reach a level which is too high, then you flatten the item numbers and BAM, there we go again and again and again. This is easy to implement and the greatest motivational engine for upcoming expansions. That's what I call "Fast Food Content" or "Wash 'n' Go Itemization".
For me those DMG meters aren't a great idea. Not because the tools are bad - but because people are. And statistics are dangerous if not well understood or not well used as people tend to reduce _everything_ on few numbers. Not because they are idiots, but because they - already searching for a simplification of a complex comparison task - are willing to act that way. They _want_ a simple number they point to and say "hey, look, you suck".
In my long career as mmo gamer I've met perhaps ten players who really were able to use statistics in a proper way. The rest used to turn boring raids in a GCC, a genital-comparison-challenge, making raids more interesting for them but raised up a lot of bad and evil backbiting...
... which, yes, would also exist without dmg meters, but with less substance as there would be no "proof" for their accusations.
And, btw., reducing a game to numbers results in some kind of demystification of the game. I like the world and the fact to be part of it. As soon as numbers hit the game, it suddenly turns into a World of StarWarsCraft, Riftcraft or Lotroworld of Rings. At this point there is no reason for me to play a copy if I could easily play the original - from which I've escaped.
So far.
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