the merit system would actually be cool, it would let us make each job better linked to one's play style. (ff11 merit system was pretty cool), add that to the 3.2 meldings their adding and we wont have each job be a carbon copy for all players.
the gears... the gears could be a little more interesting, sadly, one does feel like each piece of the same dungeon just had a small change, be it color or lenght, for each job, instead of making each job have a UNIQUE thing in their set. their not horrible, but personally i have yet to seen one that makes me go "omg i would go through hell and fire to get that piece"
progression wise, i feel that its fine. its a mmo, there will always be new content (hopefully) and small upgrades on gears each time, but since our gears are about gear level and not actually job level, i dont mind it as much.