I agree with everything except this.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Every new item you equip costs at least 8-16 Ugdenblooms or Ch’thonic Seals in addition to a dozen Aether Crystals, some other mats and a few Bits to craft a given component and its ingredient components as well as buy an augment. Often multiple times that amount because changing one item often forces you to change components and augments on multiple items.
Changing gear among other thing messes up resistances. When items provide 30-80% res, and losing 20% often doubles the dmg of a given type you receive, you often have to re-spend these costs over and over again whenever you change every little thing in your loadout.
It’s just my opinion but this is the reason I cannot play this game legit despite a few attempts to restart from scratch. The component system where they’re 100% wasted when removed and their cost is extremely prohibitive for me. I drop a new item. Is it better than the item I already have? I dunno. All I know is that I have to spend 2h in Ugdenbog and 1h in the cultist cave before I can find out, and double that time or more to get back to my old load out if that item isn’t good after all.