Think of Dragon Ball as a fighting game and power levels become tolerable.

[Desassina]

Does it matter if the player in front of you has a bigger transformation? So as long as your health bar is not depleted, you still have a fighting chance, and losing it is far more concerned with skill than power.

In Hyper Dimension, Ki was the health bar, and its inevitable depletion was the goal, which you could extend by powering up, no matter how many hits you had taken. That was Goku's attempt against Pure Boo when going full power: to rejuvenate himself in spite of every blow. That's what happened when he fought Freeza too.

In Dimps' games, capsule customization helps you focus on a selective skill set, while someone with every capsule won't lose on paper, until he doesn't know what to do with all of them, and that's what happened with Gohan and all of his power. I think that it helps when every fight is taken for what it is and no definitive strongest is sought after.

[dbgtFO]

I've been saying that in regards to Toei productions since 5 years ago(?), I can't recall, but yeah, that's how I see it too^_^
Maybe Toriyama eventually realized it's all nonsense anyways and so he too follows the same type of logic?

[Desassina]

Perhaps Toei is outsourcing ideas to fighting game companies ha ha. Super Dragon Ball Z has every character starting with a custom power level that doesn't dictate the victor. I think that it's more entertaining for the person to describe the battles and to all those who read them.

[TheZFighter]

Specific, definitive power levels were quite restrictive story line-wise and may have even taken away from the story had they continued to be used.

[Desassina]

Those only helped define their starting health in this fighting game scenario. In Vegeta's battle, it begun to decrease, and he became manageable. No character stood at a perfect power level.