How about letting us slot one materia to rare/ex gear?
Just what the title says. The first slot is not forbidden. There is zero chance to lose your gear. The craft that repairs the gear can slot materia to it etc.
That way Crafted gear can still be more powerful cause you can slot up to 5 materia to it but you can still put a little customization on those hard earned rare/ex gears. Lets face it Unless rare/ex gear is much more powerful then crafted gear (which so far it is not) no one is gonna try to get rare/ex gear because it not the most powerful and you can not even slot one materia to it.
What do you think?