With gold abs being the, pardon the pun, gold standard for combo and finely tunic/ riveted combo becoming obsolete, that rendered a LOT of mobol useless. Consider all clans' clan retools: all combo was ftunic/riv set based. The armorer assistant swapping between sets, all based on that combo. Tons of smobs wearing that eq that no one uses.
So faced with the choice between changing a ton of mobol and smob loads, or changing the stats on 6 items, you can guess which was the most sensible:
a rimmed round helmet
a tunic of finely-crafted chain
a pair of riveted chainmail sleeves
a set of riveted chainmail leggings
a pair of animal-fur boots
are now the same stats as the equivalent items of gold abs, so the choice between them will be purely cosmetic.
I haven't touched the full leather gauntlets yet, they may need addressing still.
There will be NO swapping mobol between these, as that would impact the Kandor Merchant's Guild's stub exchange.