Well, when I think about gear swapping in 1.0 (Hang tight, smoke is coming out of my ears) this happened because the gear boosted a specific ability with it's stats.

Example: I can have a high stat piece of gear for BRD DPS... however, if I'm going to sing a song, I would swap to AF gear to sing because the AF gear boosted that song.

ARR stats need to be modified so that there's not a conflict between a character's stats and abilities. So in this world, the stat for BRD DPS would be the same as its songs, removing the need for Gear swapping.