I'd prefer the last option of disabling or weakening items. Regardless of the Dev's wishes for a build breaker function, the entire reason I play the game is to have a fun set of weapons and gear to play with, having to throw that away constantly or just die to unavoidable damage because of some arbitrary mechanic is annoying as heck.
Edit: At the very least there should be an option out of combat to remove curses. Or just have curses exist during battle only.