If they were smarter and made gear upgrade unlocks a one-time thing, there would be less players who are geared going into randoms to farm honor (so they don’t risk losing rating which would stop them from upgrading).
If they were really smart they wouldn’t gate gear upgrades behind rating of all things in the first place. If it were me designing the system, it’d be 10 wins for 207, 50 wins for 213, 250 wins for 220, and 1000 wins for 226. All in rated. RBGs give x3 win count. And once people get their wins they get unlimited upgrades to that level regardless of their rating.