Enchanting should be worse

Players will almost always choose the most efficient path through a video game, even if it's a more boring path. For example, most Minecraft players choose to dig in a straight line at Y=11 instead of caving, because strip-mining is easier and faster, but much less interesting. I think this problem was a reason for the 1.17 cave update; by making caves bigger and more interesting, it could become the best way to find diamonds.

This problem also exists in enchanting. There is one set of enchantments in the game that is better than any other (when making a chestplate, the best enchantments are Protection 4, Thorns 3, Unbreaking 3, and Mending). The problem with this system is that those enchantments are possible to get, but require hours of grinding to collect the XP and set up the villager trades. This creates a problem. The best armor, tools, and weapons in the game are always attainable, but require hours of boring work, and most players are willing to do that. Players are choosing the most boring path because it has the best rewards.

A solution would be to make enchanting worse. If items had stricter limits for, say, anvil usage (maybe any item can only be used on an anvil once), then there wouldn't be a realistic way to get any "perfect" items. The best strategy would be to use an enchanting table on two items, and then combine them, meaning that every item players have would be unique to them. Items would be more able to build "lore" and have unique value and history.