Of course you are at a disadvantage if you are new to the game. cRPG is a roleplay game, that's how these kind of games work. Compared to other roleplay games cRPG is even quite forgiving for new players. Leveling isn't that hard. You don't need about a month of leveling for being able to compete with other players. You can easily reach level 30 in one or two weeks (especially with strategus battles or DTV). It is the melee mechanics that you need to learn and which make it difficult for new players, not the looms or high level characters. Certain players are dominating the game because they are extremly good at it, not because they have a fully loomed set.
Looms are fine as they are. They are nice to have but not gamebreaking. A loomed body armor, gauntlets and a weapon is usually all you need (you can still do well with less or even without). That's not that hard to achieve, especially since the armoury was added and marketplace prices are dropping (you can easily get a good weapon for 2lp 50k). If somebody retires 4-6 times to get a loomed body armor and gauntlets he should be able to survive that one more hit in my opinion. Fully loomed weapons give you +2/+3 damage. Most of the time that's not even 10% more damage in total. Hardly overpowered...
sure why not, it could start up the marketplace again
How should this revitalize the marketplace? Please explain.