They've said that only AF/Relic/Empyrean armor will get the item level upgrade, so we can safely drop the rest (not word for word, but they did actually insinuate that you should drop other irrelevant level 99 armor, like Salvage II armor). I don't know why anyone cares about Salvage plans anymore. I just drop them now.

Yes please to increasing availability of alexandrite. Beitetsu is common to the point of being worthless and you only need 300 of them, but you need 30,000 alexandrite and the available sources of alexandrite has never expanded except with the additions of Neo-Nyzul and Salvage II. On the other hand, we have cases and boxes of beitetsu forced on us in every update, in BCNMs, Delve, WKRs, Records of Eminence, Spark Rewards, and come next update, there will be more sources, I am sure. STOP the beitetsu spam. We only need 300 of the damn things and they're already worth practically nothing. And the reward for 300 beitetsu is amazing; the reward for 30,000 alexandrite is useless unless you continue to devote your life to upgrading the weapon through trials.