@reivaxe — Except the hempen gear does not racially define any of the races. There is nothing about any of them that makes them inherently Hyuran or Miqo’te or Au Ra or whatever. They are underwear sets that existed in 1.0 and were ported over as is with the rest of the gear from that time. But they have never been what defined the races, or even the culture surrounding the races. Again, the Miqo’te bottoms are literally panties. They aren’t anything special that scream “Miqo’te” when you see them. Certainly not to the extent to bar other races from wearing them. Miqo’te mini-skirt, sure. Miqo’te hempen pantalettes, no. They’re just panties.

The starting racial gear was designed with each race in mind; hence why they are different and actually fit the aesthetic of the races. They are racially defining. The hempen sets could be worn by any race because they aren’t designed with any body type or race aesthetic in mind (and if we really want to bring up body physics and aesthetics, some races use the same body model already with only minute adjustments—e.g., female Midlanders and female Miqo’te use the same model but with different ears and one has a tail).

Equating the hempen gear to racial animations is not a good comparison. Some emotes are designed specifically for certain races (/pose) and others make use of racial characteristics to make them distinct (look at any emote that makes Miqo’te ears or tails move). The hempen gear doesn’t make use of any racial characteristics. As I said previously, there isn’t even anything defining about the bottoms for the tailed races in this game. Nothing to make them “special” or cater towards having a tail.

With the hempen sets failing to racially or culturally define the races they are locked to, that is what makes their restrictions arbitrary. The restrictions exist “for reasons”, and that’s it. Arbitrary.

As for “combat versions of racial gear”, the closest you’ll get to anything that special is job artifact gear, which is one of the few things I think should remain locked as they are designed for specific jobs and with said jobs’ aesthetics in mind. I don’t think it’s feasible to lock combat gear to races because the races themselves don’t fight any differently from one another. All archers shoot arrows the same regardless of race. Same for healers. Same for tanks. Even male and female animations are the same. In terms of lore, different city-states have different combat gear—even different tribes and factions have different combat gear, though most is ARR leveling gear that everyone can get and wear—but they aren’t racially locked. If you think about it, that would take away from the uniformity that one would want in military or similar organizations. But I digress.

Your suggestion would be another asinine restriction that takes away from the game rather than give to it, in my opinion.