I don't see the benefit to it. If you want to go around town in your old gear, then so be it. We called that town gear in FFXI. If you want to actually come to combat with gear that looks like older/weaker/outdated gear but actually be wearing something else entirely, then no thank you. What this takes away from MMOs is the sense of class. Meaning "What is that guy? A Wizard? A Knight? An Archer?" Even if you allowed it only in the same category as they do in WoW, aka leather/cloth/plate, then you run into people with silly looking outfits downing these powerful looking monsters. It ruins the, god forbid I bring up something that has been making video games a medium for interactive art, immersion of the game world and everything around it.