Ya see, in FFVIII and FFX, they're soooooo strong and powerful they don't have a need for such petty armor.

...

Err, anyways, yeah, I kinda miss the whole armor thing. It's always strange to see Squall, wearing his leather jacket, take a measly few hundred points of damage from Omega Weapon, whereas Steiner can be decked out in tin armor and other metal equipment and still take a lot of damage... Strange, and confusing...
Yeah, okay, so give us the best of both worlds! Perhaps weapons with preset stats that you can then customize further! Like perhaps having a sword with +10 attack, and maybe defense, but then being able to customize the status effects and attack attributes, such as fire and whatnot. That way the games could be much more enjoyable, enabling both aspects of the games to be loved at the same time!
Eh, then you're basically looking at FFX's stuff again. Except, in FFX, Player X's strength is the base power of the weapon, which, in a way, is most "believable".