Dungeons And Dragons Online: DDO News: More on Item Level Restrictions

Dev team member Heather Sinclair popped up on the official forums with a different perspective on item level restrictions:

I think it might be easier to understand if you don't think of level restrictions as some sort of weird system that's tacked on to the pen and paper ruleset, but instead thinking of it as me being your DM and deciding what players can and cannot have so everything is as balanced and fun as possible for everyone.

If you were to start a new campaign and tried to convince your DM to let you start out with a +5 Vorpal Sword, your DM would probably say "No, I won't allow it". In the same manner, if you were to try to twink out your new level 1 with the same +5 Vorpal sword, think of the "Level Restriction: X" as your DM saying "No, I won't allow it".

She also goes on to say that level restrictions make a lot of sense because they're easy to understand, no matter your experience with any type of game. Makes a lot of sense looking at it that way. The post is available here.