Armor classes: Can't we go from 3-2-2-3 to 3-4-3?

Original post at http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2151664466 , go post there if you can and cared.

We've seen a lot of alterations in how items and stats work since the original release of the game, but what quite bothers me is that the Armor Class System has never been touched, or to my memory even discussed much.As you probably well know, there are four Armor Classes in the game, and at maximum level each player class should almost always only use items of the highest Armor Class permitted to his player class.

There's Cloth for M/P/L, Leather for D/R, Mail for H/S, and Plate for DK/W/P, and a total of 3-2-2-3 classes using each type of armor, respectively.

While the Cloth and Plate classes are fairly balanced in terms of different secondary stats and the amount of users for each type (Intellect plate not quite so, but it balances out with the relative importance and number of Holy Paladins), the hybrid classes in between don't quite feel so. Look at Shaman for example: Two of his specs require gear of Intellect Mail, which is only usable by these two specs in the entire game. So every raiding tier there has to be a full off-set and off-piece collection for two specs out of thirty that are out there (6,7% of all specializations), which is awfully little in contrast to for example Strenght Plate, which goes for 5 specs (17%, tanks not included) or Intellect Cloth which goes for 6 to 9 specs, depending on how picky priests can afford to be (20% to 30%.) In the current state, random item drops for Leather-Mail classes are much more likely to induce rage, taking example again in the Caster Shaman or Druid who might take very long to see the gear they can use drop, or their guildies, who have to see a lot of loot get trashed after their Shaman(s) have had their piece.

The point I'm trying to make is, the current Armor Class system feels too much like a restrictive gimmick than a cool class-specific feature, and it makes random loot a bit too random, as when there is a demand for more types of gear that only suit fewer specializations, the chances that your raiding group faces stagnation in some types of armor drops or oversaturation in some types of armor drops become higher, and neither scenario is very fun or rewarding.

My proposal: Remove Mail Armor from the game and give the extra armor back to Hunters and Shamans with a passive ability. I can't think of any mechanic or even lore (someone will probably correct me on this) point that would demand that the Hunter and the Shaman can't wear just Leather, which even is what they start with. And most Mail gear even seems to look like Leather.

Removing Mail would bring us to the 3-4-3 division, as described in the title. Cloth and Plate types would remain untouched, but there would now be 4 classes capable of wearing Leather (R/D/H/S). Let's look at how the primary stat spread looks like on that: You'll have all Rogue specs, all hunter specs, Ferals and Enhancement (8) asking for Agility Leather, and both Restorations, Elemental and Balance asking for Intellect Leather (4.) Now all you'd need to do is significantly increase the amount of (Agility) Leather item drops with more variety in secondary stats and you'll have removed two armor types from the game, and the chance of seeing the right type of armor item drop for you regardless of class goes up by about 30%. Usefulness of the incoming loot drops becomes a lot less random and you can afford to give more variety in secondary stats for each Armor Class.