I think they should just reintroduce "real" item decay, remove powder of fort and durability display. Then have at it.
Things shouldnt last forever and be chained to your account. You should never reach a perfect suit that lasts forever or until you make a stupid mistake.
If fighting reduced the life of your equipment people might start taking gm stuff out on hunts.
Leave the crafting system alone thou.
I've always thought about this real item decay idea that seems to come up a again and again. While I think it is another dead horse, I think it is important to explain why it won't lead to a new renaissance of crafters:
1. Blessed Items with Super Self Repair. I sold a few heritage tokens for like 200k on my vendor, and I think the price is still about that on my shard. I have at least 2 all 70s sets based around the frugal option that are the Ancient Samurai Helm and Leggings of Embers. I think the only time I had to repair them directly was after a battle with a Grizzle. While these aren't the greatest options in game, they would become much better in a world where self repair was a way to avoid losing an item eventually.
2. Artifacts have two options that make rebuilding a set around them preferable to crafted items in a world with real item decay. I) A named artifact has the same properties every time so when one broke for good, it would be easier to use a new one than craft a replica. II) Artifacts tend to have 255 durability, while most crafted items don't break 100. In the long run, the artifacts would have a longer life.