The large issue with the current system is the way physical level was implemented. Since you're amount of stats are independent of rank, two characters with the same rank can have massively different stats due to both the difference in physical level and stat preference. The lack of quick restating ability also forces people playing multiple classes to spread out their stat points. The developers will need to change stat points to be varied based off of class rank, and allow separate assignments per class. Once those two things are implemented the developers will be able to change the relevance of stats.

The reason why gear does little is because stats themselves do little, and adding 2points to 150 does not provide much increase.