I actually thought of a "compromise" a couple days ago....
more of a "what if" rather than a real compromise.
What if this 99 artifact gear... (I still have problems with just calling it the artifact set... I don't care if Adoulin is a +99 place... Rune Fencer and Geomancer are still jobs that can be played everywhere else in the game.)
What if it's an "AF4".
What I mean is that what if this "artifact gear" is a new AF... wherein RUN and GEO get it now... and eventually... later... they get their artifact, relic, and empyrean sets added?
This way, the mold won't be broken... AND it opens the door for lv120 (is that the right effective level for this gear?) gear for ALL the jobs. Not just RUN and GEO! (of course I'm talking like 1-2 years before the other jobs get it... at the rate RUN and GEO are getting this... it'll take that long for them to get relic and empyrean sets... and those need to be added BEFORE the other 20 jobs get this proposed lv120 "AF4")
And we all know how much players like getting new AFs.... (at least I do... except for the empyrean sets... no one likes getting those.)
AND seeing as how these AFs will be quest-AFs... SE could continue the quests from the regular AFs for the old jobs! (which would be especially nice for jobs like THF wherein that AF quest-line dealt with Tavnazia... a place that for all intents and purposes... didn't exist until CoP was released! Just think of the wonderful possibilities that continuing the old AF quests could do!)
I would be more than happy if the RUN and GEO soon-to-be AF gear was the start of an AF4.
Partially because I still want a "normal" 52-60 AF1...
But mostly because I like variance. More AFs (which are usually the easier high-end gear to get) mean that there is more choice and variance between players. And more choice with what a job can wear can lead to more job combinations and more people able to play the jobs they like the way they like them.