personally i think they should have made a gimper visual gear when it was below rank, like it looks like starter gear or something until you hit the actual rank req.

this way you would still have had a visual milestone, and the convience of not changing gear all the time. They also should have, and still should, more clearly show what bonuses a gear gives when its cross class. Many people had no idea they were gimping themselves, because it still shows you that its better stats in the gear screen, you have to actually look to the normal looking attribute window to see the real effects, and only works with stats that are in that window.