I think its fair to say I am one of those how appreciate the lore of New Eden.....but lets not make arbitrary limitations on who and what can fight for any one faction beyond the traditional standing modifiers.

I feel that what should be done with gear in Legion is that all suits, weapons, and module combinations should be able to work at 100% of their efficiency with the correct supporting skills, however with correctly accepted modules and weapons on suits with corresponding role bonuses suits should start to work at 110% efficiency, encouraging correct fitting and application of suits to specific roles without limiting how suits are fitted.

Similarly in Legion you should not limit players from using any specific types of equipment. Half the time in the Amarr Warzone I am dodging Caldari or Gallentean ships. I feel players should be able to use whatever hulls and dropsuits they feel are applicable to their play styles.

Immersion is a wonderful thing and can be achieved but attempting to force a sense of immersion on someone only breaks that very suspension of disbelief. Incentivising something is preferable to forcing through heavy bonuses or penalties on other things.

I'd certainly like to see LP gear have unique bonuses and colour schemes to reinforce the established militaries roles.

For example the Imperial Specialist Amarr Scout could parallel an Imperial Navy Slicer and be one of the fastest Scouts in terms of movement speed in the game, or the Federation Specialist Assault could get bonuses to Rep Rate increases to reduce brick tanking and increase armour rep tanking.

1: Seeing as though many fights are within 30km (because you're either rich as hell and don't care about burning BC's and above, or you're a fool thinking that Flying a BC and higher will net you more loot.), I call bullshit.

2: This makes 0 sense. Why would an employer pay me for using X equipment? Why would they care? As long as I get the job done, they pay X LP, and I can buy Y things from their store.

EDIT: You're quite literally asking for that even though the situation might call for a different race's gear (the whole reason why this doesn't exist now), you're hard pressed to not do so, because more LP if you don't. Ask for a better done FW with the ability to roam areas with your squad, then only invite people that uses whatever race you use. Don't force it upon others.