Power creep?

[Nominous]

Not sure I follow. Just like people do with secondaries, they will compare 100% jump potency to 10 strength (e.g.) and determine if it's an upgrade or a down grade. In the end, the DPS pieces will only be worth it if it ends up being a DPS increase overall. If it's easy to get then if it's worth something, then they suddenly become not optional, since you can change strategies around changed skills (like HG) but not really around stats.

PF: LF 2 PLD, 6 DPS for AS7, USING CHEESE STRAT MUST HAVE HG GEAR

There will always be meta, there will always be a strongest comp, and there will always be those who gravitate towards them. That's why the devs shouldn't hold balance so close to their chests, and why horizontal progression wouldn't exactly hurt. Even with the high amount of balance in the game now, there's still the same PF's up that typically rule AST out for example, or favor the stronger Jobs, even though stronger isn't an extreme statement in this game.

As for raw increases, and how people will treat them like secondaries (mathing it up and deciding what's BiS)? That's only true to a certain threshold. Like I said, there's those who will always follow the path of absolute best build available. However, let's say that up until now, every piece of raid gear had some special augment on it. Now let's say they treated the full sets, or possible combinations of all the pieces with the same amount of balance and care as the current raid gear. Now you've got a couple different sets, with various (viable) playstyles, all with similar DPS output.

Like if there was a Jump set for DRG that, when compiled, lead to 300% extra jump skill(s) damage. Then there was another set that decreased your GCD to 1.0, and high TP regen. These are obviously random numbers, but if they balanced everything like they do now, the biggest difference you'll see is playstyle. There's still the BiS, but depending on how well it's handled, that BiS would not be far off from the other sets. Each piece you get is exciting because they are actual tangible benefits, not just stacking 10 more of something you have like 700 of already. All of which passively effects your character, in some of the most unnoticeable ways possible, by the way. It's far better than the current situation, is all I'm saying.

[UBERHAXED]

There will always be meta, there will always be a strongest comp, and there will always be those who gravitate towards them. That's why the devs shouldn't hold balance so close to their chests, and why horizontal progression wouldn't exactly hurt. Even with the high amount of balance in the game now, there's still the same PF's up that typically rule AST out for example, or favor the stronger Jobs, even though stronger isn't an extreme statement in this game.

As for raw increases, and how people will treat them like secondaries (mathing it up and deciding what's BiS)? That's only true to a certain threshold. Like I said, there's those who will always follow the path of absolute best build available. However, let's say that up until now, every piece of raid gear had some special augment on it. Now let's say they treated the full sets, or possible combinations of all the pieces with the same amount of balance and care as the current raid gear. Now you've got a couple different sets, with various (viable) playstyles, all with similar DPS output.

Like if there was a Jump set for DRG that, when compiled, lead to 300% extra jump skill(s) damage. Then there was another set that decreased your GCD to 1.0, and high TP regen. These are obviously random numbers, but if they balanced everything like they do now, the biggest difference you'll see is playstyle. There's still the BiS, but depending on how well it's handled, that BiS would not be far off from the other sets. Each piece you get is exciting because they are actual tangible benefits, not just stacking 10 more of something you have like 700 of already. All of which passively effects your character, in some of the most unnoticeable ways possible, by the way. It's far better than the current situation, is all I'm saying.

But then people will get the (e.g.) low GCD set, then unsub for 12 months because all other gear is "dead on arrival" since they aren't strict upgrades until they release another broken set. Players of FFXIV make it very clear that content isn't worth doing if the rewards aren't good enough. With content releases so close to each other, vertical progression is the better scheme to have people play new contents and stay subbed throughout the content cycles. Your description of horizontal progression can only work in games with far longer update cycles and longer grind (e.g. FFXI). But (e.g.) our raiding scene is pretty small already with good rewards. If we had no "real" rewards (because some gear released last year is better) then no one would raid. I'm not against making gear relevant for longer, but what you are suggesting will potentially make future content DoA.