From what I can tell, vitality on gear does absolutely nothing besides regenerate life? Please tell me if i missed something...

Vitality: Increases the base defense for armor. For every 25 stat points you have in vitality, you gain +1 to Life Regen. Every Level Up you will gain an amount of life equal to your base vitality.

so imo its useless to go for as main stat on an item, try to get str or dex

vitality on stuff does not increase your regen
only the stats you put there.

Vitality is not a stat you should be looking for, but it is still a nice add with any other important stats ( increases def )

yes it does along as your wearing it

vitality is just a nice minor bonus on the side. when searching for gear you should focus entirely on ee for weapons on melee
heal mastery and intel for casters and all that other good stuff depending on the type of build ectera.