[BahamutKaiser]

I think they took a page out of Guild Wars and decided to allow everyone reasonable access to the best gear, it isn't like a casual player is likely to match a hardcore one, giving them weaker gear is a lame handicap. Rather, Raid gained gear will probably be more attractive and characteristic to make it covetted, casual players will have armor as effective as Raiders and PvPers, but they probably woln't look as good.