If you're going to wear high ranked gear 15 ranks or more below the optimal, hell... could even say 8-10 ranks below, you might as well just be naked. You are the noob who worries more about looking awesome than about full stat benefits.
If you're technically able to wear R50 gear at R1, there is a problem with that. That gives players (and I'm using this term just because I cannot figure out a word for you people) less reason to actually play the game as it's intended to be played when all you're worrying about is the look of your character. Now, to get the look you'll have to level up and not treat the game like it's a freakin chat room with HD graphics.
This helps out so many issues that some of you are too blindly selfish to see. Now DoH classes can actually make cash to support their grinding and progression though their ranks. This is on top of the list on why this change is great. Secondly, we can easily identify the players who actually put in work with their ranks. I know many people who just stand around town, get gil from god knows where because I never see them do a thing to earn it, and show off what they acquired on their low ranked character. It's rather obnoxious.
If you are against this system for your own selfish reasons and refuse to see the problems with letting anyone wear basically anything craftable then you're in the wrong mindset. It's not about you and your feelings getting hurt because something materialistic was taken away from you. It's something much more than that and for the better. Get over it.