I don’t know if it is intentional but the concept of megalo boxing is stupid and that is great. They are effectively boxing with brass knuckles and armor on. It would be similar to the roman style boxing which would be more like fencing in that one good punch is an almost guaranteed fight ender. The gear as near as I can figure couldn’t really do anything. The power for punches comes from the hips. In that the gear only covers the arms and shoulders. There really isn’t a place for them to build up extra force. They couldn’t make your punches much stronger at all. If they could add anything to the punches it would make the fighting style very predictable and slow. Which is exactly what we see when gearless shows up. So that would make the promotion one big poorly run gimmick the fighters are all to poorly adjusted to go along with. Which is exactly how things would go in real life. With the season two stuff about the arms being for military use and recoil supression/ prosthetics that would work though. So I dunno if the many layers of the plot are ment to actually fit together so nicely or if it just luck but it is kinda beautiful. I think it is some combination of factors with the writing having some material analysis and that producing a beautiful vivid and nuanced analysis of a fantastic setting.