If you are a free player and in a top 20 syndicate, that makes you a freeloader. It does not, however, magically create an alternate timeline in which 500+ of each item type, all with stats equal to or greater than 24k, have been obtainable solely through ”activity and smart play”/without gold use.
The only situation in which you could have obtained such an inventory is if you received literally hundreds of gifts from fellow syndicate members via the gold/item bundles. If this is the case, 1) this is entirely freeloading and has nothing at all to do with activity level or smart play, and 2), you are in a situation that affects so few people that it is of no concern to Gree. You've reached the point where you either spend gold to increase your stats, or spend nothing and cry about it.
That guy is actually starting to sound almost as ridiculous as you.