Is this the road they will continue to take with items?

[Yukiko]

It's for balance. The more "stats" you add to gear, be them your run of the mill things like det/crit or special things like you described, the harder it is to balance the game. They could get some added at some point, I mean WoW had them on the very first tier Raid sets as set bonuses, and a few pieces here and there. But people have to understand why we don't have them. Balance IS important, and XI was very far from being balanced.

I liked those games where you could "create" your own "Hero" (replace Hero with Gear).
The games i am thinking of you could create the whole Hero, not only the equip.
Its from D&D Series, and yes some are MMORPGs not all are made "Singleplayer"...

Mostly the answer is: To complicated, we will keep it simple for new players!
What I do not understand is that they change the "system" instead of making the same system simpler...