..Not only do you not have to annoyingly fix your gear after almost every fight then..
..The only thing it would is add tedium, tedium circumvented by just switching to another weapon, which doesn't have a "has to be within 10%" limit..
Everyone is welcome to their own opinion, and understanding that.. I'm going to put mine out there on something: I think people are being a little bit unreasonable with the whole tedium angle.
This isn't Diablo. The complaint of
"after every fight" is being thrown around with all this despair like battles are being thrown at the player non-stop. That's just not the case in this game.
On top of that, battles in this game (because it is turn based) can go on for 10-15+ minutes or longer. What is 10-20 seconds of mousing over a few items for your characters to check for durability after a (or after every few) 10-15 minute battles? Small tip: if two of your four party members never got hit during the battle (happens a lot when you have melee up front and ranged in the back), that's two party members with armor that don't need checking.
Chances are most people are glancing at the tooltips on their gear once a battle wraps up anyway, to compare it to any drops that are recovered once the dust from the fighting settles, to use their Identify skill (if you have it) when needed, etc. So, this whole concern surrounding the "tedium" of looking over our gear is fairly moot. I can't remember the last time I wasn't already rummaging through my inventory after a battle.
Don't forget, the game allows you to let durability decline longer if you have a higher Repair skill, allowing you to be more casual about it. That's one of the few benefits of investing into the Repair skill (that, and saving *a lot* of money and time as you no longer need to keep running back to town for repairs - if anything is tedious, it's that).
Now, if you choose to invest a point into the Repair skill to save money and time, the downside of that is having to stay on top of things when it comes to the condition of your gear (i.e. check the status of it now and then). It can't just be a thing where you place 1 point into the skill and never have to visit or pay NPC repair costs ever again for the rest of the game AND no other downside. The downside is all that highly debatable "tedium" you're talking about - because there has to be a downside to balance the huge benefits.
There seems to be two complaints surrounding the current system. 1) Permanent durability loss. 2) The concept of stages of damage that can go beyond someone's current skill in repairing. Unlike the former (which, to me, sucks all the fun out of finding great gear), the latter doesn't bother me at all. I actually feel it's a realistic concept, and in a good way. It gets you to care a little more about your gear and managing your character, rather than throwing your equipment on and forgetting about it (except to hit a repair-all button once every few hours).
