Spell Power plate in Cataclysm

I saw this comment by GC earlier, and it got me thinking about gear and design philosophy.

Source

That was the initial intent, but some Shadow priests thought that felt unfair
that they had to have two separate gear sets to swap from damage to healing
compared to the druid and shaman, and we thought they had a point. As such it
will be slightly easier to gear up as a Shadow priest since they have more gear
options. Call it a perk, but probably not as powerful a one as Holy paladins
having their very own gear.

Pardon me? Now this was in response to a question regarding spriests getting gear with Spirit on it for their hit, when the original plan was for them to use Warlock/Mage gear.

Now, I know we're still in Alpha, but this kind of thing just frustrates me. If I understand the design philosphy properly, we should see the following gear sharing/breakdown in Cataclysm. This is of course assuming that the design of defense gear to go the way of the Dodo.

• Avoidance Plate - This should be plate gear with high Dodge/Parry/Block ratings, which should be unattractive to the DPS. Shared by DKs, Paladins, and Warriors.
• DPS Plate - The oppostie of the above. High hit, AP, Crit, etc. Used by the same classes, just their DPS bretheren.
• SP Leather - Boomkins and Resto druids.
• DPS Leather - I'm guessing this will be used by both types of Feral druids, as well as Rogues.
• Caster Mail - Resto and Ele Shamans.
• DPS Mail - Hunters and Enhancement Shamans
• Non Hit Cloth - Now looks to be the domain of Priests alone. Will have Spirit on it to make it unattractive to the Locks and Mages.
• Hit/Non Spirit Cloth - Locks and Mages will keep up the age old fued by fighting over their gear.
• Spell Power Plate - Holy Paladins.

/Boggle

Are you kidding me? Really? Every healer class except the Paladin will be able to swap specs and roll directly into a DPS role with this setup. Now, there might not be enough +hit from Sprit or what have you, and I'm sure that it won't be an instant top healer to top DPS type of switch without a gear change of some sort.

To be fair, the Paladin talent trees are still hidden, and I'm not in the Alpha. For all I know there could be something in the works for this. If they put some type of talent in that would convert Plate DPS gear/stats to Holy gear/stats, you would fix one problem and cause another. Even though they don't always want the same base stats (ArPen, Haste, Crit - what have you), you still have three classes competing for Plate gear right now. Adding Holy Paladins to that mix just puts more demand on that gear, though that can be adjusted with drop rates I suppose.

Unfortunately, having SP plate in the loot tables just frustrates everyone. Either the Healadin, because the drop rate is low, or everyone else because there's only one or two healadins in the raid. It's kind of a lose lose right now, and it will be interesting to see if Blizzard can come up with a good fix.

Here's hoping.