I feel like there is a great deal of a lack of understanding of many mechanics that goes into much of the forum posting.
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This is true and most definitely is an annoyance. (Yay! I get to agree with you for once Shiyo! =D ) The lv75 requirement just to get the timer rolling is an additional roadblock for new characters and is also easy to miss for players who haven't been around since VW has been active.
I know that the devs have already cited technical difficulties in changing the way this currently works, but there has to be a solution other than "Working as intended."
If they can't change the behavior of how the current "trade dust to npc > get KI" works, maybe add a new npc who CAN handle "trade dust to npc > add to stock"? Or heck, tie VW to current content and let us trade something like Eschalixir (NQ) for stones (adding to stock, not KI) XD
I'm pretty sure there aren't any on the payroll anymore at least. :/ Best we've got at this point are the Community Reps. Although, I don't remember mods actually explaining game mechanics to those who are confused and/or misguided about how something works unless they were specifically asking questions about it. Confusion/misinformation seem to happen a lot w/ FFXI since 95% of in-game content is not really explained via any official means.