Am I right with the assumption that a player who plays close to the table and relies heavily on blocks and killing loose/ high balls is going to have odds shifted in their favour when repeatedly playing against a more 'standard' looping type player? My thinking here is that the blocker will become more familiar with the looper's placement and this slightly shifts the match in the blocker's favour. 

Or can such generalisations not be made as it still depends more on the individual players?

The blocker may have an easier time early on, but in the end it'll probably be the one who has the most flexibility and adaptability to find new tactics and shots that work.

This is assuming they are close in level. That said, if one person is only winning because they have very specific tricky serves or shots, they'll probably start losing with sufficient practice from the other player.

I'd agree there... some people at my club that I train (loopers) were pretty good, technically, but tactically they were terrible and always losing to decent blockers. I said hold on lads, it looks like you're doing a drill! Why aren't you changing the rhythm and placement? Loop some deep, loop some to the body loop some wide, loop some short! I think too many loopers just enjoy hitting the ball  as long as they get nice arcs and hit them consistently, they're happy... but they lose to many lesser players because of a few basic strategic errors. 

Yeah, the whole idea of needing to improve in every aspect of your game to move up a level comes to mind.

I guess my issue here might be then that I am either lacking in Nr 3 (problem solving ability) or just need to improve the placement of my shots a bit, get them more into corners and towards the end line. 

Another element to this question is that I have a feeling that this might change depending on what level both players are on. Around the lower intermediate levels I have a feeling that the blocker has it easier to keep his shots on the table whilst more can go wrong for the looper who is trying more 'complicated' shots. 

When I played modern defense style, there was nothing I loved more than facing a looper and noting I hated more that a SP hitter. 

The only way you can beat him is if you play ugly, ie the pick hitting style where you push everything to convert it to underspin and wait patiently for a good opportunity to kill. That or if you can play with power and spin and good recovery (I'm planning to start transitioning to that!).