I don't know if it was mentioned before, but are people ignoring the ilvl250 gear from Alex9-12 NM for a reason? You needed ilvl230 to enter it, which can be easily farmed with dungeons and you will got ilvl250 out of it.
So you have 3 ways of gearing up: Tomes, Alex NM, Dungeons. And even 1 more possibility as soon as the 24 Raid is released.

If all of this + crafting + gathering + exploring the games world is not enough to keep you busy, you could start playing something else besides FFXIV and get some variety to not burn out? (no offense, just an honest question)

Not sure if this was also mentioned before, so sorry if I am repeating, but there are a lot of people who are playing just about a few hours a week and they deserve a chance to stay up to date as well.
If there were no cap on Loot in the beginning, they would be behind within a week or two and that might kill their motivation to play.
Therefore I think the cap is a good way of giving a fair chance to everyone when the content is still relevant and active.