While I'm most certainly not complaining about a free gift, I can mildly agreed with OP.

But, for that, I have an idea:
What if gear which upgrades your active abilities functioned regardless of who from that slot you are using the ability with? For example: If you have the Crown for King Reginald which reduces the cooldown of Royal Command by 50%, then that cooldown reduction will work even if you use Royal Command with Queen Siri!

This I feel would open up some more fun possibilities and fix some QoL issues:
* No need to swap in a character just to get optimum of an active ability (This should really not be ignored, considering lag and such can sometimes make this impossible to do right).
* Gear which upgrades abilities could now all do different things! Some could reduce cooldown, some could increase duration, some could increase potency, some could add entirely new mechanics! Some examples:

MAGNIFY:
Detective Kaine's Glass = Reduces cooldown like now
Mister Monkey's Hat = Magnify also increases the power of your next BUFF (like Power Burst etc) by X%
Larry Leprechaun's Hat = Magnify also increases the duration of your next BUFF by X%

FIRESTORM:
The Princess' Cape = Reduces cooldown like now
RoboTurkey's Chip = I dunno *shrugs*

SAVAGE STRIKES:
Lion's Goggles = Increases global DPS like now
Drizzle's Pauldrons = Reduces cooldown of the ability by X%
Bubba Swimmer's (whatever item he has) = Increases duration of the ability by X%?

ROYAL COMMAND:
King Reginald's Crown = Reduces cooldown like now
Queen Siri's Pillow = Also causes enemies paused by Royal Command to be pushed backwards with X% speed?

STORM RIDER:
Thalia's Amulet = Increases power like now
Littlefoot's Camera = Reduces cooldown

Stuff like that. Would make those gear items feel a bit more... rewarding, imo. Since active abilities are used more seldomly, gear affecting them being universal, and having multiple stacking effects, sounds like an interesting change to me :)