While I understand your stance on losing gear, unless you're wearing
a suit of *HIGHLY* limited gear, the point at which you're getting
hit with hoard code is really rather light. To the point where in
most cases the scenarios I see someone hit with it are

1) Someone who plays pretty lightly to begin with ends up not
logging in for two weeks. Low play + 0 play = gear loss. I can't
tell you how many times it's hit me, and half the time the Ragesteel
gear is just as good.

2) Dude with *ABSURDLY* limited gear isn't playing it. They're
upset they've lost Defiance, Dragonbone Flute, Covgnello, and 16
other pieces of Hell gear.

Even WITH these (rather lax) limitations, I *still* have frequently
had to bust characters that are purely storage characters. Given we
typically have the random character that's two years old, I
*guarantee* you without the hoard code, the only way you'd ever see
legendary gear is between times when I slay the random gear locker
who logs in once a month just to keep from autodeleting after they've
collected it.

You and I used to talk quite frequently. I hope you believe me
when I say it's quite feasible to play very relaxed without it
becoming a dire handicap, so long as you don't expect to log in
to elite gear each time. Will you not have the most amazing
gear? Probably not. Would you have anyways? Probably not still.

Or, when in doubt - just play an orc! They've practically been
given a regear suit in their hometown.