User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 429 & 430: Code Blue & Purification Ritual, Review and Commentary/@comment-3424593-20150420131607/@comment-7418318-20150421144237

The problem with the flame pants was never a lack of meaning (for me anyway).

One problem for me is the repetitiveness. Almost all of Erza's fights end the same way. Erza is hard-pressed->nakama speech+flame pants->win.

And the other is that pretty much every armour she has was rendered useless in the face of the flame pants. All those cool and strong armours are only there to be trashed one after the other so she can eventually beat the enemy in her flame pants.

Sure there are occasional exceptions from this (vs Midnight, Erza vs. Erza and vs Minerva in the GMG), but for me the flame pants should be the exception and the armours the rule, rather than the other way 'round. With their overuse they lost the impact they once had in the ToH and Tenrou arcs.