no clue, to date we have only received 1 piece of gold companion gear and it was from an event (which if you missed you will be unable to get right now)
personally i want them to give us the ability to mark companion gear as junk because its very annoying getting companion gear drops i dont want but i cant just mark them as junk to quick sell, it either has to be done manually or what i usually do is just destroy them
i have my main house (grand topal hideaway) listed in the housing tours, it has multiple target dummies, scribing altar, and grandmaster stations (fully filled out with current game), as well as almost every antiquity furnishing on display to preview them
in progress: acquiring mundus stones (currently only have the thief)
What I want most is for my companion to be able to carry a small number of their own extra companion items so I can more readily change their role (in my case, between tank most of the time and ranged dps sometimes) without worrying about keeping track of their gear - risking it being on the wrong alt or accidently selling it.
As far as quality of gear, I think the answer is to be able to improve companion gear just we do our gear.
No, cannot lock companion gear. Though not the best fix, that would certainly help prevent inadvertently selling companion alternate gear not in use if you have to carry it around for them.
i have my main house (grand topal hideaway) listed in the housing tours, it has multiple target dummies, scribing altar, and grandmaster stations (fully filled out with current game), as well as almost every antiquity furnishing on display to preview them
in progress: acquiring mundus stones (currently only have the thief)