Gear Progression after 2.2

[Taika]

I never understood this complaint. Aren't ALL RPGs built upon vertical progression?

Pre-Abyssea FFXI was a MMORPG with horizontal gear progression (in addition to vertical progression). New content added new gear which was wanted for alternative sets and to replace old pieces but new endgame didn't make old irrelevant: new content meant more things to do instead of ending doing content A and moving on to content B. The system worked mostly because 1. all important gear took ages to get and 2. all classes needed several gear sets because of gearswap system.