All they need to do is increase the challenge and add a new tier for Prison of Elders to keep Gear Ascension relevant. Or use that as a means to update old gear into the new system, at which point they are adding even more content to TTK because now you suddenly are further increasing the number of weapons/armor in the game by including Year 1 stuff to all of that. It also serves the point of meeting that requirement for people to feel unique because they will obviously have things that newer players will not ever have access to. Its that simple. Again I ask, how is this possibly a bad thing? Hell, if they ever added Player Trading, the value of the old gear would make it a very sought after commodity for new generations of players who never got the opportunity to play with any of it.