There is the same argument applied to the most recent, level 1 glamour, which usually cost millions to purchase off the market boards.
It's as much a status symbol either way.
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se: hey healers what do you want
healers: no more robes and simmilar to what the others have
se makes healing gear that isnt just a pure robe and more like what everyone else has
se: ok hows this
healers: WE NO WANT THIS
its still a robe dough
As far as leveling gear/dungeon gear/endgame gear goes. It's pretty much EXACTLY the same as it was in Stormblood, the only exception being that Crafting/Gathering gear is now restricted from combat classes. (Remember, in 3.0 we also had job restricted AF2 sets. These were the weekly tome armors and there was actually 1 entire set of armor less, we wouldn't be having our current contest winner set for instance.)
I have to say this is a really fundamental truth that seems to have been lost. I mean, I know that what is ugly to some isn't ugly to others, but there are basic fundamentals of style that should at least guide the aesthetics of gear design. I love Japanese style armor, I do not like Japanese style armor over muted colored robes all of which looks like it was washed in a dilute paint called urban drab. Yet that's what we have. I hate armor that completely obscures gender and body shape, and yet that describes about 90% of the gearsets in the game, including the gear design contest winners. It shouldn't be hard to make gear that is pleasing both to the eye and to players who want a level of immersion. However it often seems to me that the gear designers lean heavily towards immersion and forget about pleasing the eye.
It's an MMORPG, I spent a long time creating Kosmos, and I've played her for 4 years now (longer if you include her previous incarnations), and you know, I love taking down the bad guys, but darn it I want to look good while doing it.
In my opinion, sets almost never look good when you have the entire set on. The Creation set all together is super ugly, BUT I love the healer Creation chest with other gear. In the end, it's all up to taste whether or not you think it's ugly... just because you didn't get a set you find attractive doesn't mean everyone thinks it's unattractive.
On the topic of the Genji gear...I don't mind it existing as it's a matter of taste (I actually like the healer chest, but I'll never wear it simply because the cloth skirt is part of it, and I don't like how that looks...there's no reason for it to not be the bottoms model), but I was expecting a completely different aesthetic for Omega gear and I don't really understand how it fits... I'm glad they tried something different, and I hope they continue to do so, but the Genji armor just makes no sense as the raid gear.