So, earlier today...
I noticed how my swift strike buckler didn't really match with my obsidian set. And then, an idea came into my head.
New cosmetic designs!
They could probably add a new vendor to change the color of weapons and armour, maybe even add auras to em!
The auras could be new drops from successful level completion. (Ex: Kill vana to get a fiery halo aura or a burning armour type aura.)
Drops all on RNG, and we can even look the way we want to.
They didn't program it like this back in the day so it'd probably take a long time to set up and entire color configuration apparatus (outside of personal color) -- re-coloring is probably always going to be done by OOO.
Your problem specifically could be solved by costume shields, which has been suggested like a million times.