I don't know if I like the current system, but this would be worse imo, and I doubt chadz would ever consider it, since it would basically be a weird revert to the old system.
On your system, everyone end game would just be further encouraged to wear the best armor in the game 24/7.
I'd rather see a couple of tiers of armor, that have -almost- uniform stats, and each tier has a advantages/disadvantages. Then individual armor pieces could be selected based on look.
This could be accomplished mostly with weight of the armor (light, medium, heavy), so there would be different reasons to wear different armor, and there wouldn't be a single, "best."
I don't know if that would really be better than the current or old setups though.
Repairs are a bitch, but it's not that horrible a system really, it just sucks if you like certain high level items as a noob (I <3 my Flamberge).