Originally Posted by
Arcell
Well the way I read it, the only materia they're taking into consideration for balance issues is the first. This means that at a base level crafted gear will still be inferior and that even with a single materia it may still be inferior or at best of the same level.
The people who take the time, effort and patience to slot more than that get rewarded as they should. Every time they attach another piece they have a chance of losing EVERYTHING. Depending on how the success rates are, this would make 5-slotted gear an exceptionally rare occurrence which would mean that not nearly everyone's going to have it. If the success rates are low enough, this would mean few people would have the desire to slot more materia than one.
This in turn does make the U/U gear still worth it as you have superior stats with none of the fuss. Those who don't want to waste their time and resources attaching materia won't have to.
Edit: Also consider that not all slots can accept all materia. The Dungeon/NM gear could have bonuses that would be impossible with materia.