I agree with you on the "kill-all-leave-nothing" comment.  Some players are not very friendly in this game.  However, I disagree with you on your screen shot.  Those are not "125 lvl - typical veteran's sailor."  Those sailors are very rare (50% vet on an Eng of special Santa/NF sailor).  I seldom hear players have sailors like that.  The player likely posted it to show what he/she had (thier pride; I do not blame them because they had spent the time and money to earn those sailors).  Also, most ship and sailor abilities are capped.  There is no difference in abilities after that point, if you are familiar with this game.  Yes, the BB6, BB6.5, and BB7 create an imbalance in GB.  Other than that, once you have BB4 and above, you should be able to compete. 

I could not say how much time, or money, or both, it took a certain player to get his sailors, it may vary dramatically. I only know there used to be events and drops which helped a lot, and that such events either do not occur these days, or there are competitive events, in which veteran players will win, hardly will beginners.
The screenshot is not for blame, of course, just an illustration. Santa sailors may be rare, but most players have super-elites or better, more or less high leveled, boosted, vetted and experted.
And this is something a beginner cannot possibly get without donating!
About a year ago, as I was starting here, it was different. +800% convertation (not fake), +300% reward - every weekend. Prem sailors, smokes, mines, even ships - dropping, at times. I received almost nothing, but the chance there was. Some useful items were available for medals. Without donation, one could get (with time, for medals) a 115 lvl neutral sailor, for instance. Without donation, one could slowly accimulate experts and some day roll up to 150-160 vets on weekends. Or maybe more, but that was my maximum with my first sailors. And the time one would spend for all this, to others means one more BB, or CV, or SS, or something, to help fill those valuable battle rooms we all come to see in game. For months ahead, continually.
But not anymore. No more many items at Medal store (changed to Olives store). No more regular boosts and drops. The 40 vets I managed to scrub together on a Restorer, will now die without notice, so I either could not save them, or would have to crash every battle just in case (thus no progress). Welcome to build up your crew, what can I say...

I hope me and Kareshma have written enough to not get such comments, but that depends on who reads already...No BB works properly without good sailors! Well I do have a BB-4 Richelieu. Runs 39 kts, 70 HP\sec repairs, 80 sec overheat, gunners make 2 salvos while other players make 3. Not even has 900 SD :) I guess some people just need to have such ships themselves and try to "be competitive" for months with them to understand.
I know that people used to pass levelling period themselves years ago, they had to struggle too, and so on...But nowadays it's not like most players have "low-end sailors", and only sometimes appears a 120+ lvl one in a battle. Nowadays, it's everyone 120+ and sometimes a "low-ender" among all of them. Makes a difference, and the less people (admins, and players) understand it and actually do something to help it, the more chance they will lose all those potential partners, whom they even prevent from becoming something worth to see ib GB or HA\HD themselves.