Yes this absolutely true. There was so much variety it was great. But then laziness set in and instead of fixing bugs related to certain type of gear, the decision to remove all the gear was made at launch. Now everyone looks the same in end game. It's sad really. Also you used to be able to wear your hood down with your mask. It looked awesome! It seems that Bioware would rather remove the content from the game then stay after 5pm to fix it.