These gears play various roles:
- good for deconstruction for mats and xp
- good for research (those with traits)
- good to trade between inexperienced players (or between experienced and inexperienced but that's usually an issue for scams) if you found blue or purple low lvl gears in early area.
- you can share these to other players free of charge too, and just feel better.
- good source of gold if you grind and don't plan to research or deconstruct and decide to earn money instead on this alt.
- good they drop because they are also a part of the immersion, who doesn't like to receive even more and more stuff from game?
As you see, many points and useful roles for this trash.