I would like them to go back to auto-assign too. Mostly because I feel like it would make stats on your equipment more relevant. It would be nice to bring back the racial stats as well. Back in XI, if I picked elvaan I would have crappy int and MP but I would have a ton of MND to balance that out. Then I could use equipment to compensate for my weaknesses.

I like that system because it means even if I'm playing the same class as someone, I might not necessarily be using the same gear because my character needs different stats. Coming from a game like WoW where everyone gets to a point where they're all wearing the same equipment, FFXI's system is extremely refreshing.