Well the math is complicated but some people bother doing it and generally high raw+some element with no element support skills beats out low raw+high element weapons with true crit element(silver rathalos 4pc) or normal crit element(2pc) with 5/5 element skill. That said it does depend on the weapon type and the actual weapons so it's not always true. On Dual Blades you definitely want that element build shit, same on Bow, but others are more questionable.
Element always hits, it isn't like status, but it adds a static value per hit, which isn't affected by crit(unless you have crit element but that forces you into a less optimal build), while raw is affected by crit naturally as well as % buffs like food(iirc), HH buff, Offensive Guard, the non elem skill(nerfed to 5% though in IB) and so on. Also it depends heavily on the skills your weapon tends to spam and how they work in terms of motion value(the multiplier to raw that is applied to any given attack, based on various factors like speed and reach). Motion value affects raw but not elemental iirc.
For example back in vanilla Sword and Shield favored elemental because the bread and butter was the circle fast combo which was small hits with low motion value and high speed, so raw did little but elem which was flat damage per hit did a lot. Raw was only if you spammed the shield combo, which was good but only if you were good at the game since aiming it and timing it was pretty challenging. In IB however, the addition of Perfect Rush changed that because it's basically the best damage option by a large margin and it favors raw heavily due to high motion value AND a multiplier to raw if you get the bonus(timing bonus similar to greatsword charging).
Another example is Lance. Lance is a lot of quick small pokes with so so motion value, so it should favor elemental, however Lance requires a shit ton of skills to function so fitting in elemental damage options is actually hard. On top of that, Offensive Guard buffs Raw only and by a substantial amount. Finally because someone at Capcom might be retarded Lance has a damage penalty on elemental(I believe fast weapons all have it, DB and Bow too). As a result, while lance does use elemental lances for optimal damage, they're basically the lances that have the least amount of elemental and highest raw(velkhana and rathalos, with namielle being very questionable and losing to velkhana on some matchups even with water having better damage and lightning literally having no good option, until Safi obviously).
Now this is meta optimizing shit and for the most part the differences aren't going to be that big so if you fancy doing an elemental build you can definitely do it. But it's not quite as simple as it looks, you can't just equip an elemental weapon of the right element and necessarily do better than equipping a raw weapon, even with elementless being nerfed. And that doesn't even go into Rathian weapons having poisons yet also having some of the highest raw, which is some retarded balancing. Also I think once Safi weapons come into play it becomes easier to build elemental so not sure how that turns out.
So far the only elemental weapons I've made are lances, but I often don't bother using them because they require Handicraft and I don't have enough of the really rare 4decos to make a super solid build and it gets annoying trying to fit offensive guard, handicraft and guard 5 on top of all the usual stuff. Meanwhile I can just use the Nergi weapon as a raw stick with free dragon on top and drop handicraft entirely, which gives me a lot of room for other stuff like Guard Up, Fortify and Health Boost 3. I'm not a speed runner so I like having utility shit for when I inevitably fuck up.
Pyros
what platform you on?
