No, I definitely agree. The higher level DLPT gets into some real academic stuff, not something you'd regularly just have a conversation about with a normal person. But I suppose the intent is to get those people that can read and understand something like a technical intelligence report or "gray literature."Your first paragraph, I'm laughing at myself.
I'm hardcore 2/2 SF linguist for 25 years. I could never get over the 3/3 threshold because of those deep poetic verses from the 1800s. I have no desire to get a 3/3 because I'm happy with the 200 baht and the fact that when I'm in a village I made sure all basic services are covered ( water, power, medical, sewage) and not to impress the chief with poems. Perhaps DS '26 can get thru the threshold this time because he can converse with a native speaker at home, his mom.
2/2 is hard enough to get, I feel for those CTIs that have to regularly jump that bar just to keep their job. And then, if they want to be competitive enough to advance they're looking at picking up another language or two. Some of them are real polygots. Lots of Sailors wash out of DLI and end up as undesignated or re-rated to cooks and deck.
I'm a "heritage speaker," and I barely cleared the bar. Higher levels will just casually add in different dialects (e.g. the Korean test will include North Korean). It's hard.