The way I see it. They wanted to make the game difficult without it being complete KILL IT BEFORE YOU DIE.
They added weapons that were off the charts so fights could still be done quickly on repeat but would take close to the max time to do it the first time. They added armor with insane DEF compared to previous equips and for some jobs, really nice stats.

I know this is probably unpopular, but it is kind of needed if they want to rejuvenate the game and not just continue giving sidegrades endlessly. (they should have forseen the problems their new weapons would cause and created a path for enhancement at the same time they released the new weapons)