I know this thread is long and everything has pretty much already been said.

But I wanted to just highlight the fact that one of the biggest complaints I hear from people playing many MMOs out there, successful and otherwise, is that there's a "uniform" associated with their class and level. People want their accomplishments to show in their equipment, so that people can see what they've done at a glance. However, they also want to not look exactly like everyone else playing their same class at the same level of progress.

Dye is normally a way to accomplish both of these. The base equipment shows what you're wearing, but then the coloring is a way for you to personalize it. If you take the previous system that was in place: you look at a mage wearing a pointy hat and you know they're probably in the 30s or 40s because it has feathers and doesn't cover their eyes, but then they also had four color options which were entirely made based on their own aesthetics. That's a good way to balance showing off with personal taste. The current system, on the other hand, dictates "you are a level 36 conjurer, so you will wear a pink linen hat like every other level 36 conjurer in the game."