If we were to get a more advanced materia system with more of a horizontal progression focus with each gear having a set potential that couldn't be exceeded (close to what item level does already for crafted gear) I could see this work. Making certain gear have vastly different potentials (i.e one gear has the potential to have snap punch deal 5% more damage while another gear only has potential for the same skill to deal 2% more damage but another skill has a 3%buff that balances it out) would make it interesting. With what we have now it could work but I don't think it'd be really worth it unless we had something a bit deeper but it's a nice idea and kudos for thinking of it.