Agreed. It's because once they've been there (perfection at a lighter bodyweight), showing up bigger but still relatively hard is inevitably viewed as progress as it's the only thing to do once you've been there. Like gh15 said, turning pro should be perfection then after that competing as a pro just turns into a size game because it's really all you're left to try to improve with. The only way to try to maintain your present size is by not training/juicing in the offseason and just doing a Levrone-style prep. But even then I don't think anyone can recreate their densest, most crisp package that they had turning pro or in their rookie year as a pro, even by doing that.
I think once you have your ideal physique mass-wise, you should just stay on the diet pretty much all year long at about 10-15 maximum over your contest weight
without ballooning up in weight, you can make small gains and just correct the few areas that need correction
here is a picture of incredible canadian bodybuilder Larry Vinette, who was GUEST POSING IN OFF-SEASON SHAPE
since he got a good base with his muscle mass, he just stay lean all year rounds and make few adjustments to his physique and he is better year after years
(that physique is my inspiration, I'd like to look like that better than to look like pretty much any pros. that's perfection for me)
