boo hoo... wah wah... sob sob...

The answer on removing the equipment cost was answered a long time ago. Their answer was no.

Just like gear and artifact, you have to pay a tax to change special equipment. See the image posted above.

There is a valid argument for the fact that special equipment is character specific and does not interfere with what was posted in the picture showing the Dev's response. However, this equipment can drastically change how some heroes function and can allow them to replace other heroes. This in essence is the same as needing less gear since you could, in some cases, have a hero satisfy two roles which would reduce the amount of gear used.

IF they ever do this, which I doubt they will unless they remove costs completely, I think it should be done once the special equipment is caught up and all heroes have it. Some heroes would become unbalanced in the amount of situations they could freely be used in with free special equipment swapping before this point.