I think you missed part of the article. He's not saying people should be able to wear whatever they want from the outset and then only get gear for stats.

He's saying to have a separate set of armor slots on your character sheet for cosmetic use; you'd still have to grind the rep/instance/gold/profession/etc to get the fancy-looking armor in order to wear it, you just wouldn't need the extra bag space+outfit switching addon in order to display it wherever you go.

I agree that we should be able to customize our characters more, but not our gear. It has always been very important to be able to tell what kind of gear a player has at a glance, especially in pvp. If everyone were able to customize their gear you wouldn't be able to tell if you're about to fight a pvp god in full Season 3 or a fresh lv 70 in greens and blues.

I just shoved out 1300g for the Blade Of Wizardry for my Paladin just because now I have a sword that's just fire. It looks amazing! But, it was a downgrade from what I was using. Nevertheless, you are right: people grind out gear to look good. And I have to agree with Everto in that when I see someone in T5, S3, etc, run up to me, I know his gear is WAY better than mine.

-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com

i believe the separate gear for cosmetics only works outside of PvP gameplay, in at least one other game that features it; LotRO. And that's the way it should stay.

tbh, WOW seriously needs a gear slot for cosmetics.. i'm sick of my alts walking around azeroth dressed like a cheap clown / hobo, because none of the gear matches. I took the option to dress my current alt in black defias gear up until it was way out of use for me, purely because with my black cat pet he simply looks as awesome as you can at such a low level.

come on blizzard. Do it!