I actually really liked gear swaps in FFXI, but I am also a mathematician and enjoy min-maxing.

The great thing about gear swaps is that it kept gear relevant! Pieces that were 5 years old still has uses, it gave the XI endgame so much more longevity.

It also gave the developers quite a bit of freedom when designing gear, things could be quirky and situational because players could swap it in when needed.

The only real problem with gear-swapping in XI was that it almost required windower because SE did a bad job with the macro system.