It's not intentional on the devs part, different pieces of gear have different level requirements, and characters like Anakin and ST Han, lucked out by having their gear 11 pieces all level 80 or lower. Characters that are stuck at gear 10 simply require pieces that are above level 80. When the next level cap increase happens gear 10 characters will be gear 11.
The gear 11 characters however might not get to gear up when that happens, unless their gear 12 pieces are all level 90 pieces. That's not saying they won't get to equip new pieces of gear, its just I find it unlikely that all those pieces would be level 90, it's more likely a few of those pieces would be level 91+ and they won't get to gear up with the next level cap increase.