What I meant by the "Christmas Tree is required" problem was that certain things like Cloak of Resistance, Amulet of Health, Gloves of Dexterity and so forth were considered at many tables to be essential to maintaining game balance, primarily because they made up for the gap in defenses between what you would have without magic items and what the design of higher level monsters assumed was the sort of defenses a character would have. And because your wealth had to go to procuring these essential basic items with obvious and general utility, you couldn't have wacky weird magic items at all, as it was always better to sell these and procure the basic Christmas tree decorations. Furthermore, to keep the game balanced, you had to as a GM ensure the players were moving up the Christmas Tree ladder continually.