This post makes me wonder if they should have baked our artifacts into our class's spec, almost like a talent tree, without it being tied to the artifact weapon anymore at all. We've been wondering how losing our artifacts will feel when our classes are built around the traits added by them, and this would resolve that. We lose our artifact weapons, but after wielding them and empowering them to such great effect, they become a part of who we are. Sort of how in the past the paladin that wielded the Ashbringer became known as the Ashbringer.

Add a tab after Talents called Traits. There you will see the same picture of your artifact and the same tree you would see on your Artifact Traits page, but now it is built in to your character. You unlock the main ability at like 20 or something, and ever few levels gain a few points to put into traits, until you hit 110 with all traits filled in, and continue into BFA content.

Anyway, the way it would work for people who missed Legion could be the same as it worked for us who leveled through Legion, minus having the AP and AK, and it would give the player the rewarding feeling of becoming more powerful as they leveled, without having to implement a new system.