How is it a false dichotomy though? If uniques scale, then it punishes you for getting them early. There is no way around that if they scale. There is nothing wrong with not having any items more powerful than this. Like I said, we don't need to change items constantly to feel progression.
It is false as long as you have to replace your slots two or three times over the course of the game. Mostly it is arms race because Health escalates throughout the game and in D:OS the way the ability/stat system works. Item dependent classes need to be able to compete with casters and vice versa. Thesis: epic spam directly correlates with quadraticity of wizards.
D:OS is a game that encourages number-crawling. It heavily relies on Attributes and other properties that have a number attached to it. For a system where you can find things that are of comparable value at any stage of the game but still different you need to avoid numbers like the plague. You can't just make them not scale, you make them unscalable. What is D:OS if you cannot get +2 str or +1 block and later have both on the same item?
In a system without randomness the problem of "weak uniques" is not tied to the number generator or the player who chose to go a certain path at early levels, it is tied to the developer. He imposes the appropriate balance upon the item and its ability. That does not mean the problem
is gone.
The thread you linked is mostly directed at crafting, though. It didn't concern itself with the overall mechanics of random vs unique items.
You first have to try making connections between systems and then declare them separate if you fail.
Crafting and loot can complement, interconnect and heavily overlap. Both need to be useful on their own. That is why we need to have a look on everything and then distribute duties and privileges. Those newly made interactions might solve a lot of problems.
You made this realization within your very first post.
That is true, but it concerns the lore and surprise factor of the items rather than the mechanics of them.
Statements shoehorn a lot of processes into the same category. Possibly unrelated example: "This skill has a 1-in-6 chance to activate". There is lots of random. There is lots of pseudorandom. There is lots of it-is-neither-random-nor-chaotic-but-nobody-knows.
This statement was under the assumption you want to maximize "uniqueness" in a gameplay sense because I consider most DA:O stuff "generics with lore". No really, just copy paste them into D:OS and guess where the +10% fire damage staff comes from.
