Don't remember if this has been thrown up before, but wouldn't it be a good idea (and aid in eq rotation) to put a counter on every piece of eq of, I don't know, two or three, so that afterwards this piece is destroyed (and is no longer repairable)? It also seems more realistic: you can't repair something forever?
And to further this idea:
- why not lower AC every time something is broken?
- perhaps even introduce faulty repairs (like a piece of metal/wood/... scratching/grazing/injuring you from time to time when you fight)
- some things (like legendary/famous/infamous flagged) aren't to be repaired and go 'poof' instead of broken?

At this point, things like dent/stoneshatter/... is not as scaring as it used to be since, well, all you need is gold (which isn't a big deal at high level) and you don't have 'the fear' of losing a difficult to get piece of eq.