I honestly thought this idea was pretty good I don't know why so many people are hating you for it. Only thing I would add is that the tokens you get be distinctive for placing in the top 100, top 10, and #1 so that you can only use them to obtain rewards from previous seasons within that same rank bracket you ranked (like I would not allow people that are ranking outside the top 10 to obtain top 10 rewards by just accumulating top 100 tokens).
The gear/items would still be exclusive in that you still have to rank in order to get the stuff just like season's past. So you would still be "earning" them. And I put earning in quotations cause of how relative the term is. There are a hell of alot of people listed in the top 100 right now who cant even keep a winning record (i.e keep a win ratio at or greater than 50%). There are even ppl up there with win ratios under 45% lol. Meaning these guys all lost more games than they are winning so you can make a case if you wanted to that they haven't earned anything and that they are just beneficiaries of a system that rewards mediocrity and the ability to no life the mode. People want the stuff to remain gated with a limited window to obtain it to feel special I get that but is it really that special when you have players with losing records obtaining them alongside those with winning ones?
Regarding the stuff about whether or not people care about these top 100 exclusive gear/items in and outside of PVP it just depends on the person you ask and is therefore subjective. There are some who will feel proud of the accomplishment and will cling to it, display it or boast/brag about it till the day the servers shut down. Others, including the vast majority of players in this game who only play PVE, will only show a passing interest in it (in so far as to wonder where the gear/item came from) or more often than not not care at all. From a personal standpoint when I got the gear from season 1 it felt "special" for all of about 3 days to me before I started questioning why I cared so much about glamour gear which has since been replaced with moogle themed items and the santa outfit (I never even wore the season 2 gear). But that doesn't stop others from cherishing and treasuring that very same gear so to each their own.