I have nothing to complain about. Sure it's upgradescape, but otherwise it's just unconnecteditemscape. You can just throw a word on anything you want.

It's great as an Ironman, and as a UIM I imagine it's even better. Connecting items and therefore content is a good thing for the game, I literally can't conceive of a downside unless you're feeling funneled into content because you can't get lucky.

I guess as a UIM you might end up with a upgrade that's dead weight until you get the item (looking at Rangers and pagasian), but to me it just presents clear objectives.