[Someone]

How about... Show the equipment types but not the exact equipment? Say X is holding a polearm type weapon...

Is it a standard Spear? Maybe it's an Impaler. Soul Stealer, even? Anyway, I doubt they all look like a carbon-copy of the icon. People have black spears, white spears, red spears...

I doubt you'd know what it is and what it does and how well it does it, just by merely looking at it. Especially outside of a battle situation, when weapons are put away, deactivated, etc...