I can't believe the development team would even consider removing this system and replacing it with another when all they need to do is make stats actually matter, and by extension, make the penalties for wearing gear outside of one's optimal rank more severe.

Surely they have better things to do than destroy already-functional systems (which is effectively what they are doing by replacing the optimal rank system with a much more restrictive and annoying required class/rank gear system).

Not only does it make the whole game appear overly-complicated and convoluted, but it is removing player freedom at the same time.