The power from animal MATs is tied to age and gender, doesn't matter if it's a hamster or a plateback, MAX HP males will always give power 1.0, while MAX HP females will give power 0.8.

It's the stats boost you get from MATs that is important to many people, regular animals give a stat boost of 0.75, but to get a boost of 1.0 you need to kill mutants, and to get the best MATs for power and stat boost you are looking at killing MAX HP male mutants.

Don't get me wrong power 1.0 and 0.75 stat boost MATs make great armour, it's just not good enough for a lot of people.

As for missing the point, I think you are too, playing an MMO for "fun" means different things to many people, for some that means becoming the best in game, for some others it's just messing about without getting too serious.

Me I'm serious enough to want good gear, but not serious enough to put in the work to get the best gear, but I also like "messing" about.

I've "raided" more dead tribes than I care to remember, so I've gotten a lot of very good gear over the years, not the best gear but usually better than my "Jack of all Trades" can make, I do have one set of high end Master armour which was a thank you because of some of my "messing about".