Allow me to give you some historical background here:
Originally artifacts were meant to be very rare, possibly unique items, hard to get, and consequently a bit better than other items.
Hence the random seldom load and the maxload.
Some of them loaded on strong mobs, others in containers that were reset so that there only was a chance of the content loading when the mud rebooted.
The way the code was supposed to work was that no more of an artifact would load, if there was already a number exceeding the maxload in the game. However, if a player logged out with an artifact, that wasn't taken into the maxload, because then it wasn't 'in the game'.
In the old days artifacts didn't go poof, and you could sell them to other players for hefty sums. As the older players have testified, they were much sought after, cool and popular and prestigious.
Then the word spread about the locations, since some players would always blab about secrets.
Then some players started to hoard them, with the result that no more loaded.
Then some players started to use 'mules' to store them on, (alts that they only logged in and out to place extra equipment on), thereby avoiding the maxload restriction.
So suddenly, instead of the intended max 5 of a certain artifact, there could be 25, of which Player A had 15 and player B 7. Another example of how a few individuals can ruin the fun for the many...
Also the artifact code was a bit buggy, which didn't help things.
Those were the reasons for changes like timers and artis bonding to the finder.
Both of which I agree were not very good solutions to the problems.
Artifacts were never 'nerfed' however. What happened was that as the world grew, every builder wanted something 'special' in their own zone, and other equipment escalated. So, in comparison, the artifacts became less desireable.
And since by then the staff had realised the other problems with the existing artifacts, very few new ones were made.
In conclusion, I have to agree with Once.
Come up with a new system for artifacts that is fun and interesting and challenging and cannot be abused too much.
I agree that no equipment shouldn't suddenly go poof in the middle of a fight.
I also agree that most items, including artifacts, should be sellable, to support a player driven economy.
I also like the suggestion to restrict how many artifact each player is allowed to wear at the same time.
I also think that artifacts could be a bit extra good, as long as it doesn't unbalance things.
I wouldn't mind a global message announcing that 'An artifact has loaded', provided it doesn't specify which one.
But apart from that I really haven't seen any ideas yet that are good enough to make me want to put any work into the artifact system.