Yup, I've brought this up before as well. I strongly disagree with SE's decision regarding Soldier gear's ilvl. There's a reason certain MMOs that have a combination of token systems and loot drops don't distinguish between them in ilvl - because the token gear is supposed to do two, very important things: 1) offer alternative stat paths to gearing and 2) provide relief from really bad RNG.

This is a very bad move on SE's part.