Hopefully not
Problem is, that part is getting ignored.
They also seem to think we are not able to distinguish between a conjurer and a warrior unless they wear AF. Them removing the belts just proves that. It's like saying "you want more individuality? ok, we will make you look alike even more."
Considering the process of "what's that awesome chestpiece? /check" makes a quick and easy transition to "what's that awesome transmog piece? /check", your second point is kinda moot.
And if you can't tell what class/job a person is by looking at their weapon, well...
At first thought i felt this was a good idea, but here is the thing I really like the fact that when i see a guy i know exactly what he is just by glancing at him.
"we are planning to make these items wearable by more, if not all, classes."
well looks like people rather be a true cookie cut, what if everyone is wearing the same thing? so we can have whm in DL armor make more sense to cross class armor?
Please, re-read your first post where it says: "The majority of gear affected by this change are dated items, which many players continue to wear for aesthetic reasons, despite incurring performance penalties."
That means its mostly DATED ITEMS and not all of them. As for making gear vanish from the character bodies but still have it equiped for stats, etc (I.E. Runes of Magic, Aion, etc games), is abit meh, because most people will just get naked because its so cool and they dont want ppl to see thei gear unless they check them. Also, why hide the gear graphics? I find it sad that ppl want to have 'x' gear for their stats but dont want to look like it actually does, IRL if u feel cold and put a shirt and a jacket on and want to look nakie, u'll have to remove the jacket, shirt, etc to look nakie and u'll actually be cold, so if u want to look nakie, remove the gear, if u want the stats, put the gear on?
Either way, i dont mind if they put it or not since i wont use it at all.