Will player level be > ilvl?

[Delily]

I think some people are still hung up on the idea that character level = ilvl, this isn't true.

Right, ilvl is nothing more than soft leveling mechanism that's used to gate content once you reach the hard leveling cap. It prevents you from speed running all the endgame content while letting the designers create tougher bosses. Once the hard cap is raised, those gates can be removed. The purpose of gear is to let you clear content, not the other way around.