"FFXI didn't have ilvl" is false. It did have item level; it was just invisible and doled out extremely inconsistently, so that you'd get Lv.7 Leaping Boots that outclassed every other footwear until the mid-60s or so. Then, since you could swap gear in content, you didn't even get that "customize how you play through your gear" effect that you apparently want; you'd just bring your entire wardrobe with you and gearswap into the situational gear you needed when you needed it.

Pre-Abyssea FFXI gear design is the pits. It's not worth romanticizing. I would like some post-Abyssea gear design, though, like the AF3 gear sets that provided job ability boosts and set bonuses as well as common stats.