I used to play a game called "Last Day On Earth" (pretty similar to this, but zombie apocalipse theme).
one of the pluses they had was that if you found a weapon in the wild, you could take it home and modify it with your current mods. I'm not saying that i want the full upgrading system of LDOE in here (although it would be awesome), but if the repairing bench or even a different bench could apply the current level an item to an under-leveled item, it would help with feeling that getting certain weapons/ clothes is pointless aside from scrapping them.
P.S. can you please bring back the numeral temp scale? it was very useful.
#Repairing bench suggestion
lone jacinth
steep matrix
there's a gear that has chance to craft an item 1 level higher than it's original level....but a whole system for modifying weapons is not a thing, gun parts is