There are definitely a lot of interesting things they could do with "materia" I mean heck look at what they did with the evoliths in xi. As long as they do not ham string there use with a "cool on paper" system like synergy they could really open up a whole new realm of possibilities when it comes to augmenting your performance with gear and have it be accessible to a good majority of the player base.
In the end i do not really care what it gets called, as long as it is easy to use and the enhancments are noteable enough to warrant caring about
