Upon the malfunction of my trading post, I have only recently realized the inefficient way that various cultural sets are purchased and/or used in the game. My suggestion, a simple one, is to make these armour/weapon skins also available as just the skins since very few people buy these expensive sets for anything more than the look anyhow.
TL;DR: please make cultural weapons and armour into skins that are just transmutes instead of armour or weapons with stats.