Easy Mode - The Hard Way

So. Much. This.

It's a reward for completing progression. This is why you don't want to skip content. So much of what makes a character 'powerful' are the rewards from previous progression.

You'll notice I haven't advocated for any autogranted progression except Journeyman 1 Mercs. If you want anything better, do the progression.

They skip 85 levels of content which means they missed out on all that content and learning.
Getting evolving gear would mean never having to worry about getting gear for the life of EQ.
Sure, it wouldn't be the best gear but it would be current.

You want to give everyone all their spells/disciplines/combat abilities as well ?

Just because you say it's different doesn't change reality. You're up in arms over mediocre gear? Guess what, Heroic Characters are automatically given mediocre gear.

Of course. What I am proposing is no different than Heroic Characters in this regard. HCs get all their spells, discs, and abilities autogranted as well.

How about a choice -

1. Heroic Opportunity: You start in the game world at level 1 with armor and some combination of what I originally proposed. Massive XP bonus, evolving armor, autogranted spells etc.etc.etc. up to to the level of current Heroic Characters, and extras. In a default guild just for Heroics.
2. Heroic Character: You start in the game world at level XX as a Heroic Character, with level-appropriate armor, all spells/discs/abilities at that level, and extras. In a default guild just for Heroics.

99% of you DID NOT solo/molo through all those levels. When we were coming up through the content there were always plenty of groups. You really have no basis to expect the new players to do it alone.

Maybe an idea would be to have something similar to what the OP is describing but where the end result is you end up at the same place a heroic character would start at (with difference being that you might have some gear/aa that is better than you obtained in the journey to level 85).
Maybe an option for gold accounts only?

This is sort of what I was going for.