Many people complain that there should not be a level-limit to anvils. However, I have never encountered this issue IF I’m using it properly. I have made the perfect armor / tools with all the best enchants multiple times (on vanilla), and if you combine the books in the correct order, you never reach the limit.
So this problem occurs if people don’t have access to mending, which I can understand in the early game. In the mid to late game, people usually have access to mending.
So this is mostly a problem for servers which don’t have mending or for new players I assume.
Mending is also about to get much more difficult to get with the new “rebalance” of villager trades
Mending is not always available in those stages, especially for loner saves (no/minimal village usage). Until now you have to farm librarians to have it.