The point of this change is very little to with actual pve content, its more to do with giving PvE players an incentive to actually PvP if they want to min/max but make it a reasonable / achievable goal for them rather than it being 14 or dont even bother pvping. If your like me, i care alot about my pve gear being optimal and bis, so adding in that rank 10 gear would allow me to pvp because i see the reason to do so.
If you want to make the pvp scene more active, simply make the r10 gear as it was on nost and it would surge a whole new kind of players into the scene, the pver.