That's your opinion I respect. But if r8 ruined everything, server wouldn't be where it is now. Like you said it's probably the only stable international server with alive pvp.While I agree that gear with random stats causes some imbalance, you need to also take into account that because of r8, players can 'perfect' their characters, make them stronger and enjoy them more. Having gear with random stats gives people something they can work for. On the other hand, it's not difficult to get full dragon set. Once people get it, there would be a little left to do. Everyone would have same gear. And even though PvP would be more balanced, server would eventually become boring.
I agree with bumping dragon gears stats, my main uses dragon so it sounds great. Strangly enough my alts use r8.The ideas of reverting to an old server... not so much.