Golden Girl

Yes it is - exemping down is the only way to get rewards from content you've outlevelled because the game moves you on by reducing and removing the rewards as you progress through the level ranges.
Right now, the Incarnate system doesn't do that, because there's still only 1 level range for it - none of the Trials are gray yet, so there's not the usual mechanic in place for telling players it's time to look for higher level enemies to fight.
In the 1-50 game, the rewards from enemies in your level range drop as you become more powerful - on the Trials, that doesn't happen - so far, we've gained 2-3 levels on the Trials, but the content we were doing before we got those levels is still giving the same rewards even when we've gained those levels.
Unlike the 1-50 game, where XP is the key to increasing your power and progressing through the levels, the Trial path is all about Threads, salvage and merits - if they removed XP from the 1-50 game, all progess would stop - if they removed IXP from the Trials, progress would be slightly slowed down by needing to convert Threads to open the slots.
The key progress reward in the 1-50 game is XP, which is reduced and then removed from enemies as you become more powerful than them, which moves players onto tougher enemies to continue their progress - on the Trials, the key progress rewards are Threads, salvage and merits, which remain the same, even as we become more powerful than them, so there's no need to move onto tougher enemies, because the weaker ones are providing just as much progress.
That's why the first idea the devs had to try and move players onto the tougher Trials was to copy the system used in the 1-50 game - reduce the key progress rewards from the easier Trials.

That's the key part

I've offered my parents and grandparents plenty of backtalk when it's been needed

Let's see some more then, if there's so much of it

I never knew grays gave any rewards.

Such as?

That's not what they do on the Trials - they throw those dreaded "gimmicks" at us instead - because players had brought it up quite often that AV fights could sometimes be kinda flat because they were sometimes just huge sacks of HP - so the devs took that feedback onboard, and gave us Trial AVs with special attacks and moves instead of just more HP.
All the Trial AVs are way weaker HP-wise than Reichsman, because that's what we asked for.

So solo content should only be soloable by certain ATs and builds?

Telling players they're getting a solo path, but then making parts of it need a team would be kinda missing the point

Also, as far as failing goes, it's hard to fail a story arc, even if you fail on a single mission of the arc - like rescuing someone before the timer runs out - if you rescue them, the story arc continues, but it also continues even if you fail to rescue them - the contact just has slightly diffrent text, then hands you the next mission - and while players accept failures on Trials, I don't think they'd be quite so accepting about failing story arcs, and then having to start them all over again.
For example, imagine Mender Ramiel's arc is an Incarnate story arc - each mission has a timer on it, just like each stage of a Trial has a timer, to crank up the challenge factor - and a solo player manages to get past Trapdoor, but with difficulty - but then they fail the Hero 1 mission, so the whole arc fails, and they have to start again - this time, they get past Trapdoor and Hero1 , but fail at the Echo of Minos - so they have to start again, and get past Trapdoor and Hero1 again.
That's how the Trials work - fail one stage, you fail the whole thing, and have to start again - but adding that level of risk to a story arc that's meant to be soloable would be a pretty big step to take.
But if they did add that, they'd also need to remove any contact chain, so that players could play any Incarnate story arc in any order, rather than having to do the standard chain of completing one arc to get the contact for the next one, otherwise, there could be some players who'd be stuck doing and failing the same arc over and over again for several days, trying to complete it just to unlock the next one.

So backtalk to your family is forbidden?
She also expresses concern for Statesman's safety just a couple of panels later - plus Statesman makes zero follow up to her "bite me" comment, even though it would seem to be a direct personal attack, rather than her vague use of the word "hell" - it comes across more as an exchange that they've had several times before, that neither of them treats totally seriously.

To assume that her remark is serious would mean that we'd also have to assume that she's under the impresison that Statesman somehow rules Paragon City, and can turn it over to her anytime he likes.
And her follow-up to this oh-so-serious bid for power is to check up on what her friends are doing, then go help them protect the city - which is the responsibility that Statesman gave her when he was away.

Vilalins accusing heroes of being arrogant is pretty standard - it's one of those words like "insolent" or "impertinent" that mosutache twirlers use when they're challenged by heroes.

Longbow that you can blow up and drive out - it's more dynamic than before.

But not by out-levelling the 1-20 content
To level to 50 in Praetoria, you have to keep exemplaring to avoid going past the 1-20 the content range and losing the rewards.

Yes- they're too good just to be called content - they're great content.

The 1-50 game moves players on by reducing then totally removing rewards once players become too powerful for the enemies in their level range - right now, the Incarnate system only has one level range, and they're testing increased rewards for the toguher Trials, and a few tweaks to their difficulty as a way of moving players on - if that doesn't work, then the next level of Trials will have a new currency, creating the next level range for the Incarnate system.

That doesn't happen in the 1-50 game.

You're raging over something that isn't there

Some kind of Valentine's Day Trial would be fun

Don't bet against new Valentine's Day stuff

The focus shift must have been made sometime after Halloween then

I am - what are the examples of Ms. Liberty being unpleasant in the game?

Got any examples?

Tasks designed for 1 player can't be as complex as tasks designed for 2 or more, Trial enemies are between 2 and 6 levels higher than the DA enemies, and it's hard to fail through a lack of teamwork when you're solo.

The devs discovered that with the AE - and datamining the Sewer Trial is probably showing thme something very similar

Safeguards and Radios are more generic - they're focused on action rather than stories - and even then, they're still based on 1 hero vs 1 costumed villain - and the Tip missions are much more story driven.
Having a flexible number of costumed villains also causes problems for soloers, as it means that they can't experience the full mission unless they're on a team of 8 to spawn all 8 costumed villains.
Roght now, the system is set up so that everyone can have exactly the same story experience, apart from the number of faceless goons they have to fight - that seems much simpler than a system where teams get bonus unique villains to fight, and a changed storyline.

A higher difficulty setting gets more rewards - teaming is also rewarded.

In the 1-50 content, you get better rewards for more difficult enemies, and a bonus for teaming.
In the Incarnate content, DA is 50-54, and can be soloed, while the Trials are 54+, and involve teaming - based on the rest of the game, this means that the Trials should offer better rewards than the DA content.