Variance in player skill is hurting FFXIV's itemization design.

[Dzian]

I've certainly completely lost interest in gearing up in this game, and that's the core of the games progression... There is enough content besides that to keep me interested, but I certainly give zero f*cks about gear these days...

This is something I definitely agree with and I think is a big part of the problem perhaps in many cases even bigger than player skill.

For me I don't care about gear because every piece of gear I get is ultimately going to end up traded in for seals as it'll be replace in a month or so with something better. this makes gear incredibly lack luster and thus not worth the effort to get... my paladin is 231 and there's no reason to take it higher. over time i'll probably upgrade the lore 230s into 240s or I know at somepoint there'll be 250 even 260 gear.

its also the reason I don't bother melding anything... whats the point when its going to be replaced in no time...

so then when you look at the "harder" content like savage and extreme primals the answer is simply why bother? next patch everything you have will be obsolete and easily replaced or an eaiser alternative will be added.

didn't do savage for the 240 gear didn't need 240 gear. and now 240 gear is easier to get from weeping city and upgrading lore.....

there's really no reason at all to make any "effort" to gear up your character because you'll gear it up no matter what you do.
and there's really no drive to go and do the "harder" content because everyone will be on the same level anyway....

for me it's not a lack of skill that stops me doing extremes / savage stuff it's just there is absolutely ZERO motivation to do so.
and I know a lot of players who feel the exact same way.

so I don't think skill gap between players is the big problem at all. there's just no motivation for players to rise up to the challenges because anything they get form doing them will ultimately be junk...

that and the challenges are made easier over time anyway so knowing that, where's the logic to do it now....

it's a contradiction by game design... Gear is the motivating factor to do content. but back in beta Yoshi said "gear wasn't valuable or something to get attached to" if it's not valuable there's no motivation to get it. which in turn means there's no motivation to do the harder content...

so in many cases the problem is not one of skill but one of proper incentives. if the rewards from savage / extremes were valuable pieces of gear. i'd makethe effort to get them. but when the rewards are "next months junk" there's no point.