Personally, I wouldn't mind if our main tank blew up his templars if it meant my linkshell would eventually have one of the best tanks on the server gear wise, thats really just my linkshell first mentality though and the fact that it would add a ton of replayability, but I do understand where you are coming from. I really like your idea about the unique effects for unique gear though, I honestly hadn't even thought about that. That is really the only reason why some of the stronghold items are even worth getting. They give stats that can't be obtained via materia, either at all, or for that specific gear slot. I am really just looking for SE to give us any reason at all to do previous content. Another idea I had that would probably be less popular is turning those items into Unique/Untradeable materia that can't be gotten through any other means with either superior, or unique stats compared to the current materia. Of course, they would have to implement a system that allows people to put materia on gear without having to trade them for this to work.