iLv needs to change

[Felessan]

My main point still stands that item level does not properly reflect your character's potential, and is thus misleading.
Two people with the same item level, but one with a far smaller weapon, have extremely different potential. Even different armor slots are not equal.
Almost everyone here knows all of this already, probably because they either happened to read it or someone happened to tell them. There is no metric in the game that shows this.

And it does not really meant to be. ILVL is just an indicator. Simple indicator. For DF purposes it's specify absolute minimum of gear check, but it in no way reflects your actual power. For PF purpose it serves to prevent obviously bad geared players into your party but it does not relieve leader from his job to actually gauge party members performance.
The way ILVL structured it means just how far from current "top level gear" you are quantity-wise, not quality-wise.

Item Level is the closest people have, and is referenced everywhere as being super important.

It's not super important. Your skill to put out reasonable dps/heal/agro/sustain damage/follow mechanics/etc or ability to clear FCOB is super important, and ILVL is just important as it gives a metric to gauge your gear. Imperfect one, but still better than nothing.

Stuff like this helps brew bad blood between "good" players and "bad" players. Changing how Item Level is calculated, or providing some means for players to at least make a better-informed decision on how to upgrade their gear, is just one thing I'd like to see happen to help lessen the gap, because I'm sure there are a lot of "bad" players who are honestly trying but just don't know better.

Bad skill is what brew bad blood. Especially inability to follow mechanics.
And weapons are just a minor problem and you most likely than not will just receive advice how to improve your weapon and no offense if you play perfectly for your gear setup.