Tied to equipment condition = awesome.
Overlay on the body of dirt marks and scuffs that appear as the condition worsens. Dings and gouges on weapons would be cool too. Functionality wise it'd be a good way to show that your gear was getting close to needing repairs.
I agree it should need an option to turn it off since it would add some processing requirement to users machines.
I don't think it should be just poo-poo'd away as "we have other things that would be better use of dev time". While this isn't what I'd like instead of my new relic quests, I would like the devs putting a little time into it when they could.