Variance in player skill is hurting FFXIV's itemization design.

[Granyala]

Why do you feel this way? I never understood this feeling of "mandatory" in a video game.

I raided in WoW for 9 years.
I have seen and felt the difference between a Mythic raider that raids mythic for the challenge and dudes that are just there for the "incentive". You may guess once, who ends up being the burden on progressing and who causes loot drama.

I also see what an extreme item level gap does to characters of non raiders. It SUCKS to feel like trash next to a raider, no matter how well you play.

I play FF-XIV as a retired non raider and like it because that BS doesn't exist here.

However, gear that you obtain raiding doesn't even get you started on the next raid tier. For example, you could have had full 210 raid gear from Gordias, but as soon as midas dropped, crafting + midas NM + seph ex were better and you needed that before going into Midas Savage. It would have been nicer if the gordian savage gear got you started in Midas Savage - for example.

If you NEED pentamelded crafted gear to progress, that indeed would be quite the design fail on their part. I agree.
I always thought it was an option for those hardcores willing to go the extra mile.

Can't speak about the actual balancing of content though, because I do not raid in FF.

That said, power of gear isn't a huge issue, but the staleness of it.

On that we can definitely agree.
Gear visuals are cool but I do miss set bonuses that spice things up and reward you extra for completing a set.
These could also be used to make raiding gear more unique w/o going into the "insane power" territory, although I'm not sure if that can be pulled off w/o one set ending up superior and being deemed "mandatory" by all raiders.

As I also said in my initial post: materia is dead boring in it's current passive incarnation.