Unique items & Base Types

So something that I've been thinking about is why uniques are tied to specific base types. I would be interested in other peoples take on it and discussion. Would it be bad if the change was made so that uniques are no longer tied to the BASE type but the WEAPON or ITEM type in the case of equipment.

This change would definitely not apply to rings and belts, as those don't really have an equivalent reason to change in this manner. I am specifically referring to weapons and armour.

For this example we will use Quecholli, which is tied to the Jagged Maul 2H mace base type.

What would be the ramifications if this unique could be obtained on an Imperial Maul (level 65), a Driftwood Maul (level 1) and an Impact Force Propagator (level 70 & experimental is basetype).

In my opinion, I would be interested in the idea of moving away from a concept of unique items that would never be taken to endgame, or are essentially highly de-incentivized from doing so. Now PoE is not D4, but I do like the system where a unique item in D4 can still be relevant in endgame because it can roll at high power.

This concept COULD be seen in the current leagues rune system, but the current iteration is highly limited and does not extend to armour. I do think there would be a very nice place for Runecrafting in PoE if it was properly expanded upon but at present it is also only a "take x stat and apply to x rare" which can be good for sure, but some uniques are good because of the full SET of benefits they provide.

Though the fact we could apply runes to level 1 items made making new characters feel AMAZING, as it was basically a "Craft your own unique starter weapon" and wasn't bad for the game because it checked all of the traditional poe checkboxes for power: "you had to grind to get it" , "it wasn't available from the get-go", and "it cost something".

Essentially I think uniques should be available on all relevant base types, unless a level drop limit is attached. Some uniques would suddenly become obtainable at level 1, and some could drop on "level 65" basetypes.

This is my feedback, and I am also curious if anyone else wants to chime in yay or neigh.

Unique items need a massive overhaul in endgame viability. The greatest offender here is the plethora of unique weapons with level 60+ requirements that have laughable damage ranges for anything beyond white mapping, and their secondary effects don't compensate for the pathetic damage.

This a subset of the greater issue of endgame loot, in that anyone beyond entry level mapping can confidently say that they will NEVER (nearly 100% of the time) find a wearable item off the ground that is a direct upgrade to their existing slots. That is a terrible statement to make for an ARPG and this game has an extreme fixation on currency drops over everything else.

Uniques just aren't exciting. Rares aren't exciting. Anything short if a rare currency drop usually gets filtered out.

Something needs to change. What is the point of everything sucking because of rarity and scarcity?

Ggg forgot the fun part of the game for creating a larger and larger time sink.

This is uniques used to be somewhat competitive. Now they are just alchemy shards.