After mulling it over I am not as against the color=stats thing as I originally was. I would be interested in more gear models and more colors available per piece, so that there are multiple playstyles per color. Since this is the early stages of Crafting 2.0 and the fact that materia stats are so significant compared to stats on the armor (the issue of raid gear being a lot weaker than crafted gear w/ 1 materia) I don't feel as if the issue is as large as it sounds anymore.

I still like the little boosts you get from colored gear vs. having uncolored gear and having all the possible color boosts present on an item at once would overpower it, while toning it down would make it too weak.

I still don't like the equip requirements changing when a piece is colored vs. uncolored, though.

I'd like to get more insight from devs on why dying changed this way and what they have planned for it, personally.