I'm in the same boat as Lienn. The Dev's response just has me sighing a great deal as this is rather disappointing news to say the least.
At least now I can opt out of carrying on nude while I rank up lower leveled classes, or opt to wear a new set of armour one rank ahead of time so I don't have to stop ranking, go back to town, buy it, then go back out again. Adjusting the repair system has done nothing for my inventory, and if anything, has made matters much worse.
I hate to think about going back to XI's way of doing things in terms of RESTRICTED ARMOUR. How very droll, heavily instanced content, a dying open world, and restrictions up the wazoo. Pretty sure if I'd known going into this game it'd turn out like this, I wouldn't have wasted the money.
For one, I can say, I did not see this coming. ): Perhaps for craftable gear to remain the way it is, and for future 'raid' gear to be restricted maybe I did, and would have welcomed it to be honest. But not this.