Clearly the OP didn't play FFXIV 1.0. The characters blinked for each and every piece of gear changed in the macro.
/equip "Head" "Healer's Crown" *blink*
/equip "Body" "Healer's Robe" *blink*
/equip "Hands" "Healer's Halfgloves" *lag from previous blinks, so macro line fails. macro should be used a second time*
/equip "Legs" "Healer's Culottes" *blink*
/equip "Feet" "Healer's Boots" *previous blink is extended to include boots change*
In XIV 1.0, if you changed gear, you were animation locked during the blink. If you blinked in rapid succession (like the above example), you were essentially stuck struggling to move until the macro finished or was canceled. There was also a stat penalty for changing gear mid-battle.
Fortunately if you blinked in XIV 1.0, targeting would not drop (yay for healers), although people tended to stay in one gear set for the duration of a fight because of the animation locks. The rapid blinking also resulted in any characters targeting you to nod, their head's focus alternating between your normal height and (while you were invisible) the floor where you stood. I once had 3 Lalafell nodding creepily in unison while I changed gear.
Note that in XIV: ARR gear changing will happen quickly, arguably faster than XI's, with no noticeable blink. It's been shown in the alpha videos. If XI can achieve this speed of gear change, it would be perfect, as mid-battle gear changes are far more important here than there.