Because people tend to have this idea that gear=skill. Even in XI's endgame if you didn't have specific gearsets for specific actions you were seen as incompetent and not worth taking into endgame. It's worse here, what with the WoW kids getting in on their first Final Fantasy MMO and expecting it to be exactly like WoW. Not saying they're all like that but the ones that tend to dominate the endgame scene certainly are.