Something people don't realize about the 'Tin-can' line of armors is that in 1.0 they used to be extremely rare. I'm pretty sure there were NONE leveling up, but correct me when I'm wrong.

Darklight used to be the final piece of gear for tanks - And it was difficult to obtain because of droprates. Heavy darksteel was also in the game at the time, and it had much of the same use as it does in 2.0. Not as good as darklight, but good if you could get melds on it. I think.

So it was actually pretty cool to end up in armor that made you look like a tank. I understand some people don't like it, but I think there's nothing more awesome than an Axe-wielding darklight user. Not so cool on Paladins, but on Warriors it just looks awesome.