Vanity system feels more complex than it needs to be...

[Mihana]

At least its not like TERA (and I think Aion?) where you have to destroy gear. Expensive gear, mind you.

Yeah, I remember TERA. Though in comparison even for that game there were "alternate" pieces of gear in some cases that looked like the more powerful gear. Not much I think but there was. But again it's not really based on the availability of said gear but the whole process used just to project that gear. When they spoke of vanity I had envisioned a simple system where you just dropped a piece of gear into a separate window that sort of "overwrote" your current appearance. I'm not saying other systems are perfect either but it's over complicating features like this that generally turn people off from using them. And technically the armor is sort of "destroyed" anyway when you think about it. Say you craft a specific piece of gear that's incredibly hard to make. According to the patch notes using it in a projection will effectively bind it to you anyway. Stat-wise it could be totally useless but it means you cannot sell that piece off to somebody else, or in the case of a Free Company, share it for your friends to use.

Essentially it destroys it from entering the market ever again and just takes up a slot in your inventory or retainer until you decide to either throw it away or sell it to a vendor. Not as harsh I know but in a way it still exists here too.

The same reason Ventures and Atmas go into your inventory instead of into your currency tab and key items; incentive to buy retainers.

This was my thought as well, which actually, I had hoped trying to avoid saying.