Weapons and armour are supposed to be shiny and well maintained - if they are allowed to rust, they might become less effective at the slicing and dicing.
Although wouldn't it be cool if we could find some ancient weapon or armour set in an ancient tomb somewhere, and then use the yet-to-be-implemented crafting system to restore it to its shiny glory?
Oh geez that reminds me to go do some armour and bow maintenance in real life (I play SCA and my gear hasn't seen much use over the past year due to COVID lack of war events)
