Item level was hidden up until Patch 3.2 which released on August 4th, 2009, but that's why the GearScore add-on was even invented because it gave people a number to gauge how good your gear was before ilevel was a thing people could use. GearScore was still used even after ilevel was added to the tooltips because of the fact that higher ilevel gear wasn't always the better option.
Not seeing anything wrong with what @Zentail stated.