.. First off, Since the lag issue doesn't seem to be going away ANYTIME SOON.
Having lag because you're near someone with a slower connection seems Brilliant mind you.
When I join a battle and the other guy takes 5 minutes to load up, while the rest of us load up, and he's the one who suffers the least it seems wrong..
So the simple Change?
Make it so that even if you lose in a PLAYER VRS PLAYER match, that you still get equipments.
Since, y'know, the lag seems staged to avoid you playing with other players.

Aeria can't do anything about it, and there is a ap item (warring states) that lets you keep what was found even if you lose, so don't expect it to be changed from the current system.

It's the Internet: players are gonna lag and you can't do anything about it. Players who are laggy and know very well they lag will play anyway because they can: you can't do anything about it.

Learn how to deal with it in other means such as weapons made for fighting laggy people. That's the only positive thing I can say. Also, don't count out the bit where you, yourself, could be lagging and contributing to the problem.