Way back there were no repair kits at all and everyone carried around stacks of metal bars, shaped wood and leather for repairs. When repair kits arrived on the scene they didn’t work on legendaries so when said legendaries wore out that was it. At that time kits didn’t have a chance to reduce durability at least. Then legendary kits became craftable by purge armorers and then some time later were added to UC drops and were made craftable by non-purge armorers.

Whether it’s good or bad we’re literally going back to the way things used to be.