EDIT:
Oh hey you guys might like this. You can skip to the No Dash Boss Rush clips for the really good stuff, but whatever you do, read the video descriptions.
I'm not sure what you define as "cheating" to get around as unarmored X, but the only time I had to do ANYTHING that I consider a physics exploit (which was cancelling air momentum to reset your jumping arc) is the pit in Yammark's alternate route, and there's actually nothing there except the Dynamo boss room. No reploids or items of any sort, and no other obstacle in the game requires that. Certainly not Shadow Armor's helmet.
That's exactly it. Manipulating your air time by pressing start and using weapons that cancel your momentum. I hope you didn't forget that one part in the Gate Stages where there was a huge pit meant only to be crossed by Zero, the Blade Armor, or the Falcon Armor. Neither unarmored X nor Shadow Armor can air-dash, and you can't just make a dash jump off the side of the platform because there's another upside-down platform in your way. So as either of them--even with Speedster and Jumper parts--you have to cheat.
Why should unarmored X be Zero's equal? X has armor. Zero doesn't. If the game were balanced as you suggest, Zero would be underpowered.
And we wouldn't want that.
Between X's greater mobility but weaker strength with the X buster and Zero's greater strength but less mobility with the Z-buster, it sort of balances out. It's just weird that between the ranged expert and the melee expert, it's the melee expert with a stronger ranged attack than the ranged expert. I know Zero wrecked Vile's first Ride suit in X1 with a single shot, but the series has come a long (although not necessarily great) way since then, and I'd imagine X's buster has come to either match or exceed Zero's while he excels with the saber, not have Zero excel at both while X compensates with armors. Call it nitpicking if you like, but I just don't like the PSX games for the most part.
It might be worth mentioning that while the Falcon Armor's abilities were overall nerfed, it was given the ability to charge special weapons, which it cannot do in X5.
Seems like an unnecessary break with tradition, especially to recycle a second armor, along with the Ultimate Armor, and to keep regular X's basic start abilities from changing.
Your High Max video says nothing; as I said earlier the Z-Buster is situational. When I said "more trouble than it's worth", I meant to rely on it. To seize the opportunity when it arises, that is something else entirely. But it's all a moot point, because the Z-Buster has NOTHING on the Blade Armor when it comes to fighting High Max.
http://speeddemosarchive.com/demo.pl?MegaManX6_8boss_2314
Part 15, 1:43
It said exactly what I wanted to say: The Z-buster is buffed. Even in the High Max fight, you could time almost any of Zero's techniques at just the right time to stun High Max at ground level. Then use the Metal Sword to destroy the barrier and squeeze off a quick shot. Even with X, you could time his charged shot just right (or jump right in front of his shield) and have it phase through the shield to make contact with High Max. It's a physics glitch, and no one is supposed to figure it that out, but there you go. This doesn't count how effective the Z-buster is against any other enemy, but that's moot anyways since you can just slash their face in half or dice them up using that insane saber cancel exploit. Zero's broken, but I'm not asking for him to be underpowered or for X to so much surpass him (what, like that's bad now? karma chameleon, [sonic slicer]!) as get a little buffed in relation. An air-dash here, an extra chip of damage there, that's all. The game's still made for Zero or the armors anyways, but I don't think it's asking for much to at least make the game a little more beatable with X without resorting to cheating. Veteran no-armor X gamers would expect that much at least.
It's Part 14, not 15.
How the hell is anyone supposed to figure out the Mach Dash was even capable of harming High Max after being stunned, much less being that powerful? Aside from the two obvious weapons and a Giga Attack you have already? I'm not impressed by the astounding lack of sense the game design has.