I love people calling others "open minded" only cause they agree with each other.
PA or high-end guns? Sure why not. Just make them not possible for everyone and make players put a lot effort in... (Really? Soulbonding? REALLY?!) LEARNING HOW TO USE IT.
Its not WoW'like soultion, since it makes sense and still it can keep the game balance fairly.
You want to get Power Armour? Sure. Why not. You just need to join BoS/Enclave, do some really hard (and easy to screw) quests, build your character for right requirements, wait some time (IRL) while the armour is made for you and pay shitloads of caps. After all of that you will learn how to manipulate Power Armour - how to move it and keep your balance etc. Also, if you screw ANY of quests, do ANYTHING wrong, kill by accident ANY friendly (for the faction) patrol, you are screwed, since BoS/Enclave needs 100% trustable people.
Obviusly you wont be able to buy another PA if your reputation in BoS/Enclave lowers or you leave them. You also wont be able to buy another PA if the one you had before was not destroyed.
When youre killed, your mates can pick up your PA... Sure... Or wait... Thay CANT. Since you managed to get killed in PA, its pretty obvious that theres no PA left - only some junk that used to be one before. Your pals can bring it to BoS/Enclave to get some money for usefull parts but its not much, really. Also if you gonna give your Power Armour to someone else, he wont be able to use it cause of lack of skill. He can still be protected by the thick armor, but he wont be able to use it correctly. It means - max Agi = 3 or so, max Perception = 4 etc.
Do the same with high-tech guns. You cant shoot with it if you dont know how. Your friend will give you one? Make sure you wont loose your fingers or head by using it in wrong way. With gun you cannot use, your skill (f.e. energy weapons) will radically drop - as well as luck and agi. (Or you will just need more AP to shoot with it). You can still TRY to use it, but hell... - youre risking your life.
So - no we have only a little group that can use Power Armors, they are not power built cause they needed to spend some points on right requirements (like science etc), they devoted a lot while making their char happen and they cant really loose their raputation. Why would someone do that if its easier to get CA and be a junkie?
Yay - In order to create truly elite soldier. Not powerbuild - elite.
To make it even harder to be abused by gangs helping their fiends alt to make those quests etc, just make some quest which would teleport a char making it somewhere, so he cant get any help. (He must go alone and noone knows where he is).
If someone will finally make a char that can use PA / some sort of really good gun / whatsoever, it means, he deserved it. And he still needs to be cautious, cause loosing it will cost him a lot.
Now what we need for such a solution:
A lot of quests - hard and well written, some script changes, new perks (like PA using - same way as Gecko Skinning in F2). Nothing serius, but it would take a lot of time since devs dont really have time for issues like that right now. Fair enough if you ask me. Its a good way to introduce high tech, but it doesnt mean we have to have it now, just cause some people cant wait any longer.
E: Power Armour deteriration should take really long but it shouldnt be "working" after its taken off from a dead guys. As i wrote - you should be able o get some pars out of it (with enough science for example) and bring it to Bos/enclave/some unique vendors to sell those parts.