Joe still is under the guise of his spec-4's and TL's. If properly empowered to do so, NCO's will enforce a strict "use common sense" rule.
By the time I left 1/75, you had a ton of leeway to make your uniform work for you and the job you were doing. The only caveat was that if someone (higher ranking) asked you why you had something a certain way, and all you had to say was, "it looks cool" - then you would more than likely be getting back in line pretty quickly. But if you tore apart and re-sewed things, or modified equipment, whatever - and you could demonstrate why what you are doing is better - you were left alone at the minimum, or told to show everyone else so they could implement it at the maximum.
I don't see why the rest of combat arms can't have the same responsibility. The guys at the platoon level and lower know what they need better than those that are instituting asinine rules at the battalion and higher levels.
I'll even take it a step farther. If a PSG knows he will be doing an extended movement through the mountains in Afghanistan, he should have the leeway to say, "hey, drop the plate carrier and helmets, we are using racks and PC's" so that his men can negotiate the terrain with out injury or unnecessary exhaustion, as well as fight and maneuver against the enemy effectively.
What I am getting at is the Army doesn't trust it's small unit leaders, and I firmly believe that lives have been lost because of it.
We were working towards that, no thanks to a specific CSM prior to a CSM/RSM/RHOF member now. SOP's SOP for a reason, but you could diverge from it (and have those sensible divergences incorporated INTO the SOP) if it truly made the mission better, or you perform better.
I never had much more to do in terms of uniform or equipment modifications that was necessary, at least in my eyes. I can see ruck tweaking, and I can see (having been there when we went from ALICE pseudo-dress-right-dress to MOLLE/PALS) being able to put shit on your gear where it works for you. The whole "you will have your magazine pouches spaced one pals strip apart centered on the centerline as worn with grenade pouches following onn either side where you will never reach them with an aid pouch emplaced center mass to ensure that not only do you have an overt center point for the enemys sights to rest upon but should you survive enough to try to render self-aid, your bandages will be shot through" bullshit doesn't conform to reality.
Peoples feet are different. Peoples positions they need to mount gear differ duty to duty and person to person. You need latitude to be able to adjust your uniform according to necessity of the soldier, and of the mission.
I've actually got a picture somewhere where an actual patrol mission was boonie, brown tshirt, RACK, SAW, DCU bottoms and boots. That was the uniforrm... Oh, and camelbak plus double 1 quarts/2 quart. When you're having to rock climb where goats fear to tread, you need to work that shit. Especially when it's fucking 115+ out.
We got it done, nobody died. Hell, one of our OP's uniforms when outside of the buildings was body armor, helmet, boots. Pt's were the uniform otherwise. Even one of the QRF missions I rolled on was a hip pocket uniform call... we needed to roll quicker than we needed to get dressed, so here I am in tevas, PT shorts, body armor with no shirt whatsoever, kpot w/ NVG's and my SAW. Get'er done with what you got.
Normal shit? yeah we wore our DCU's. We would have dropped plates and/or armor depending. I specifically rigged my gear so that my RACK actually interfaced with fastex on my armor, so I could drop my armor as one unit and have everything I wore, in the same positions, retained.
Plus, for all those modifications and various shit that we did, we'd usually end up showing the shit off to the other guys doing the same job..... someone would go "that'll work till" "Oh, you're right.. so what about this?" "ok, that sounds like it'll work better" "yeah but it's going to ride like ass" "so's your mom but the platoon doesn't bitch" "1ST SQUAD!!!!!!!!!!"
Etc, etc etc.