Item Level? I'm not clear

[MistakeNot]

RANT ON

I'm not clear why we can't have a simple rule.

"Larger Item Level Means Better Gear."

Why is this not the case?
Why is it not the case that the "Recommended Gear" button on the Character panel should just be able to choose the gear with the higher item level.

Item level is just a fixed number for each piece of gear that is not terribly important in and of itself.
Item level matters in exactly three cases:
1) Determining which levels of Materia can be melded to the item
2) Your average item level restricts which duties you can enter through the Duty Finder
3) For DoW/DoM retainers their item level determines how good items they can bring back.

For all other purposes Item Level can and should be ignored. It does not matter - the stats an item provides matter.



It is indeed not always the case that higher item level means better gear. In particular for low level gear where some of it is wearable by all classes, the item with highest item level is not necessarily the item with the best stats for your class.

For crafted items there have always been Normal Quality and High Quality versions of the same item. The HQ versions is significantly better, but keeps the same Item level because it is the same type of item.


In short, the answers to your questions is: Because that is not how Item Level works.
Sure, the game could be changed to have it work the way you'd like it to work, but why should it? Just to fit your preconceptions?