Thanks for your replies, everyone.
I guess it was pretty obvious to everyone I came from FFXI and not from WoW. I had no idea this is the way all MMORPGs outside of FFXI worked.
I gather everyone else prefers this style of play since this type of leveling up (vertical gear based) is so popular.

It seems I was unclear in my OP. I don't care that the item is rated as level 110. You're right, it's semantics. I was actually trying to point out that since we aren't gaining job levels, we aren't getting any new abilities or traits. Those of you who never tried FFXI would be surprised to see how many awesome spells a BLM obtains by level 50 (every mob was not weak to fire as they seem to be in FFXIV).

More spells, traits and abilities = more fun. More obsolete, unsellable armor = more storage headaches.
I don't know... This is how it seems to me.