You don't need the best gear if you don't do raids... even going going in Esoterics is an overkill anywhere else except Savage Alex atm. What would be the point of this? I beat Bis Ex at around i149 and Rav Ex at i159, just for example.

A vast minority of the playerbase is doing Alex Savage, and only a very small fragment of those people are good enough to clear A4S atm. You would just be screwing over 99% of the raiders by giving "free equivalent loot" elsewhere.

I think this is overall just a bad idea. Want more gear progression? Go do Savage Alex like the rest of us.