As I said numerous times… I don’t like the current system… however I adapt to it, mainly cause I participated to a game conception, as a beta tester, and from this experience I have learnt to love to test and also finding ways to adapt to a system…
But, removing locks would remove any interest in the resources, the shops, the blessing tiers etc. So a simple screen where you customize freely your equipment would be sufficient. I guess that, throwing in dustbin all this work is something that can be difficult for developers… especially if it is a large part of the universe of your game.
Again… I like the changes… however, on crafting I believe it won’t solve the player base problem. (see my post above)