While your points are valid imho, but why not have customization with the iconic characters? As long as it's not about stats to affect the overall run of the character like a RPG. Sure items should have a point in the way you portray it....but the point was CAS caters to the casuals more than the hardcores.
I mean I remember visiting my little cousin's house to play with her on LittleBigPlanet. And LittleBigPlanet is all about customization on your levels and the sackboy things are that little cute dress-up dolls. What made it successful was being creative and artistic like while having a ton of fun. The costumes for the little sackboys were rip-offs from it's own and many games like god of war, street fighter, etc, but the pieces were there to make and combine your own little fashion.
I got her to play SCV with me and let's just say, she adores CAS mode to the point where she got her dad to get SCV. The funny thing was I was about pop in my SCV for her and she just whips out her own. All because I dressed a Yoshi style into a cute color and played around and she wanted to follow me.
The one thing you and I both know is CAS is like a cash cow if it was able to attract a 9 year old. It doesn't need anything like stats to help it like in SCIV(hated those stat things for that wretched tower) or a separate game, it's simply just fashion fluff to show off and take a break from hardcore play. Basically the CAS stuff is supposed to be like LittleBigPlanet except less "customizable happy" on the costumes since parental is strongly advised haha.
While it could of/should of/would of been something with way more potential, but the only thing that I can think of to make CAS equipment matter in the way you put it, is the modes cut from the previous Soul Caliburs combined with only CAS to make a seperate game for even more $$$ and support from me to Namco. Keeping the CAS in SCV was a smart move imho. While I could try to make do with what I have, but I'm a fashion freak despite being able to get into hardcore stuff. Casual before hardcore. But I'm sadly a Compasual(competitive and casual) type haha.
If they put something like CAS in DOA series, it'd actually attract more peeps attention. It may seem like a Pandora's box idea at first, but the craziest ideas sometimes were the more interesting ones. I mean, a fighting game is but a game of entertainment. Why not be competitive yet add some fluff fashion of fun factor to it? Though I'm gonna get the game anyway for the iconic characters, but some CAS of DOA's fashion would be great idea imho if they need every bit of support from their fans. Face it, games these days are like music. You gotta please the crowd.
Imho, pleasing the crowd can either be a hit or miss with me due to my preferneces. Should they not put CAS stuff in DOA, I won't abandon it. I'll probably play it still hardcore wise. But if the peeps I want to with only play it for a bit then drop it, why should I? I could play hardcore and be the rare guy who fights hard, but I can't do it unless I have competition to satisfy me. But hopefully, the game will attract me somehow.....