I see what you mean, sadly those tome items overlapping still make it impossible to just level along with combat classes on the way, except if you start the whole scrip thing and grind that for too long of a time
And that is the exact problem I have too, like you I myself can't think of a solution on this specific issue either, although even if just a tiny bit better than the quest gear would already make me happy.
With the current system, it's rediculously hard to get HQ gear while still levelling your classes. (Ofcourse it's not impossible with the right consumables, rotation and HQ materials and probably quite a few tries and some luck, but you know what I mean, this is a huge amount of effort compared to "run here and kill 5 of these", which ends up in the same HQ gear I think)

It all just impedes on levelling a whole lot. I don't mind it on max level at all, it's super nice to have an extra sense of progression, but the uselessnes of lvl 61-69 is making me so sad right now