What will happen to dated items and dated material ?

[Kraggy]

You only have dated gear o.o? I think it might be good to consider getting some of the new equipment that has been released since then..

Correct.

New gear = huge Seal grind or umpteen instance/group runs. Most of the friends I had early on have gone, the shell I'm in is moribund and I see no point trying to find a new one before 2.0.

If SE delete all my gear for no useful purpose whatsoever then I'll not play 2.0, simple as that. There is NO point in deleting items that already exist, at all.

[Jennestia]

Correct.

New gear = huge Seal grind or umpteen instance/group runs. Most of the friends I had early on have gone, the shell I'm in is moribund and I see no point trying to find a new one before 2.0.

If SE delete all my gear for no useful purpose whatsoever then I'll not play 2.0, simple as that. There is NO point in deleting items that already exist, at all.

Some MMOs delete obsolete items all the time once they "clean up" or remove a means of obtaining it unless it's a rare item, i.e if it's a Ring of Slaying that gives you 70 attack and 120 STR, of course that wouldn't get deleted, but a bronze mail that's been long replaced and you can no longer buy from NPCs or anything of sort? That gets deleted once they clean up redundant items in an update.

You're also incorrect about one thing:

New Gear = Crafted with new recipes and instead of being able to wear high end gear at level 1, you have to actually level to wear it -- most dated gear is "optimal level (x)" which you can wear at any time you want even if you get no benefit whatsoever, they clearly wanted to get out of that system for the most part.

[Kafeen]

Correct.

New gear = huge Seal grind or umpteen instance/group runs. Most of the friends I had early on have gone, the shell I'm in is moribund and I see no point trying to find a new one before 2.0.

If SE delete all my gear for no useful purpose whatsoever then I'll not play 2.0, simple as that. There is NO point in deleting items that already exist, at all.

There are lots of places to get new gear without an LS.

There are always shouts in Ul'dah for pickup groups.
You can buy it form the Market Ward.
You can craft it yourself.
You can get it from quest rewards.
You can get it from leve rewards.

Most activities have at least some chance of getting you new gear. If you have nothing that isn't dated, I do wonder what you've been doing for the last year.