I imagine that the biggest advantage that current BiS gear will grant is a longer time before you need to upgrade after the level cap increases and quicker/ easier leveling (fewer misses, higher HQ rate). Sure you'll want to sell the things you gather to make money, but everyone (who gathers and doesn't craft) will be gathering and selling all of those items as well. Once you hit 60, I don't expect current BiS gear to be worthwhile. There will be new crafted gear (probably 2-3 sets from 51-60) that accepts tier V materia as well as 2 'scrip' sets (red and blue -- forget which one is capped). It sounded like HQ melded crafted gear will still be the best, with the capped scrips gear behind that, the uncapped scrips gear behind that, and I would expect current BiS gear behind that, with possibly some 51-59 gear pulling ahead of Forager's, nevermind level 50 class specific gear.