Love the new progression system for items and gear. However it would be nice to untie it from the story level progression. There are those who delve deep into the exploration of the game and adding some way of getting higher level gear without having to progress the story would be nice. Keeping it locked behind the higher level essences is great, but for us hardcore players of similar genres we love to be able to "overgear" before heading into some boss or story fights. Not to the point of abusing it but its nice to not have to be forced to be the same "level" as the boss to fight. Feels a bit forced, like "play the game how we want" and not how a player likes to play.
The same is true in architecture.
To open up all the building materials, we rush through the story without understanding it well.
We want to take our time building up the base first. We want to get all the building materials and then go looking for other elements.