The move towards a less vertical style of gear progression could
possibly come as early as 3.2,
if the dev team are even thinking about it at all. With the revamp of materia usage and the supposed bone they're going to be throwing crafters as far as usefulness/strength of crafted gear, combined with the randomness of aetherial gear drops in Sea of Clouds airship ventures, it all gives me the impression that perhaps they will be rebalancing stat weights (again) to favor more gear mixes. What is the point, after all, of using materia in your gear if the materia only affects your job's performance by such a small percent? I can't imagine they are going to leave the system as it is now with all the item changes they are supposedly going to make.