I salute your show of dedication to martial arts..
i just made monk to smack things in the face

You still do ok without a weapon, better than using green handwraps, but not as good as blue.
I feel if your idea was in practice, other classes would complain that monk is overpowered, and having uber dps without any need to get weapons is quite frankly boring, half the fun is getting new gear.
I'm sure Jackie Chan or whoever doesnt use knuckles and handwraps and stuff, but i like the variation of monk weapons in Vg.
Fighting with a piece of cloth wrapped around your hand is still bare fist fighting anyway

and in a fantasy world, it makes sense magical/enchanted wraps would increase your power