I don't understand why people shouldn't be allowed to discuss about this subject or even be worried. I like reading arguments from both sides as I haven't taken any yet.

This is a big change for players who are used to not having to make permanent purchases: in 1.0 you could just buy something for a spesific level range or just to see how STR melded hands would affect your damage, for example. If you didn't need the stuff you had bought, you could just sell it forward, not losing a lot of gil. You could also lend your friends gear for spesific fights and give your old low level stuff to newbies. Not being able to do any of this will change the way we handle gear and how we make purchases. I guess I personally wouldn't be buying as much gear as I used to buy, especially for lower levels, as I couldn't resell them when I'm done with them and turning low level gear into materia wasn't worth it in 1.0 at least.

This change may be good for crafters, yes. But only if that makes people buy more stuff, right? And would it, really? I think all bards had their own pair of felt bracers and all black mages had their of INT hats (random examples, having some trouble remembering the gear pieces) anyway, the new system wouldn't change that. To me it seems like this new system would mostly affect lower level gear. Of course people might want to sell something quite valuable when they get something even better (possibly R/E dungeon gear) at max level, but with the new system it might just be they wouldn't purchase the less good piece because they don't want to waste money.

It's clear crafters need to be able to make some money from crafting and selling gear, and there has to be a constant demand for new gear pieces. But I was under the impression this is what the materia system is for: when you try to meld something, you will blow up dozens of pieces in the process.

I'm not saying 1.0 had a good economy but I'd hope to understand which parts of it worked and which didn't and how. Maybe someone could explain how this new gear bind system would fix the issues in 1.0's economy?