How would this even work?
This is how it always is. People spend more time at the higher levels than lower levels, and most don't want to waste time gathering in low areas, so they'd rather just purchase it.
I'm very disappointed with Materia. I have had to get two Materia melded for my relic weapon... and that's it. Why are there no slots on dungeon/dark light gear? Why are there caps? I should be able to min/max and provide some diversity in how characters are built. It's all very vanilla right now.
