Quote Originally Posted by Wolfie View Post
Because they gave up on changing it. They couldn't take it out because the backlash from the community would ruin everything.
^This.

The effort it would have taken to remove gear swapping once they realized people were doing it would have been far too much to do. Instead they just went with it. Obviously, they kicked themselves for making that decision because they intentionally built this game to prevent gear swapping and there was an official communication at some point that flat out stated gear swap will not be a "feature" in XIV.

Gear swap is a nightmare on player inventories.

It is a cheesy way to min/max on the fly and adds absolutely nothing to the enjoyment of the game for regular, non-hardcore gamers. (read: the vast majority of players)

It is also would be a nightmare for the developers to have to take into account when creating future content.