If people are ignoring story and lore because they have the option to ignore story and lore, making armor obtained via story and lore isn't going to make them suddenly care more about story and lore.

If they want to expand on story and lore, that's fine. Anyone who gives a damn about story and lore can and should be going and doing the Artifact quests anyways, especially since many pieces are still useful at 95 anyways. But adding magian quests to old armor doesn't equate to an expansion of lore. Likewise, expanding on the lore doesn't necessarily equate to making the gear wtfbbqawesome or equivalent to AF3.

There is a massive difference between saying "Hey SE, please give us some more story and lore. I miss that." and "Hey SE, please make my level 50 armor super awesome at level 99 via trials of the magians". One of these I support, the other I do not.