Specific stats are a good thing, and it should be bound to gear, stats bound to gear means more gear choices, less importance to gear tiers and more content to obtain certain gear, i don't mind having to change gears before a battle, the system is too mindless as it is now. having to chose the right gear before a battle adds more deep and strategy.

Also Yoshi said they want to implement it w/o affecting the balance, so i don't think it'll be mandatory in any way.

Your potential problems are just laziness, not real issues.