I was always under the impression that it had more to do with raid item greed.
There are several reasons I can imagine why developers make items in an MMO bound to character (BtC) or bound to account (BtA). As far as I know, no DDO developer has ever explained to the players why exactly BtC exists in DDO – and it may well be that this policy for raid items was simply adopted from other games without ever being questioned. The only case where I know the reason quite surely is EverQuest, where the developers told the community it was only because they didn't want players to sell raid items on eBay, which was forbidden by the EULA.
Regarding the reason you assume, I could ask: who is the greedy one? The player who looted the item and thinks he can use it on one of his characters, or the player who thinks the owner of the item should pass it to him because he believes he can make better use of it on his current character and build? And especially in DDO, where you can reincarnate into an all-new build, that 'need before greed' makes no sense, because every character can potentially use every item after a true reincarnation.
Now the argument might come that you cannot use the item on your current build and that for this reason you should not be allowed to keep it in your chest instead of passing it on for a roll. But there is a saying in Germany: 'Wer mit dem Zeigefinger auf andere zeigt, zeigt mit drei Fingern auf sich selbst' – which basically means that whoever points at someone else with his index finger points at himself with his other three fingers. Maybe the truly greedy ones are those who want items from other people's chests, or who think they have more right to roll for an item than others.
For this reason I say everyone should decide for themselves whether they need an item or not, for whatever reason – and therefore everyone has the right to keep an item or to roll for it!
Another reason I often hear is that developers think they give players more reason to play their games when each character has to acquire his own items, because then you have to get the same item several times. But I say a player would most likely not continue playing just because of this. Artificial repetition and forcing players to do the same thing over and over again creates frustration, not loyalty. A player who likes a game continues playing and finds reasons to play it, and a player who doesn't like a game finds reasons not to play it! I like to play DDO, and if I can share an item on my account I might move it between characters – but in the end I would like every character who has use for this item to have his own copy of it.
And once again at this point: I am convinced that DDO should be an account-based game, which means it is about the player, who should freely decide what items he needs, and who should have all items and the long-term progression he has earned available not on one specific character, but on his whole account.
When I ask for account-based progression, that means all your characters have the progression you keep after a true reincarnation available, always when you play DDO. And therefore account-based progression also means the items you have earned are always available to you when you play DDO, on all your characters.
For this reason I also see no need for a separate account bank. There should be only ONE BIG bank for your whole account that gives you the most convenient possible access to all the items you have earned by playing DDO.
And for players who like 'naked runs' for whatever reason, SSG could still introduce an option to turn off your account-based progression on certain characters, just like you can unequip all your items.
Makes it useful in raids, where ooze summons aren't very welcome, and worth chasing.
