Quote Originally Posted by Sonic_the_Hedgehog View Post
Also by your logic, a gatherer can charge 120 million gil because they're the only ones who can collect the catalyst. Which may or may not take a lot of time to do, so they could end up doing less than the crafters and battlers.
Does not matter one iota what the gatherer charges for the catalyst, or the battler charges for the materia. The crafter owns the title to their houses. No one can start materia without paying a crafter something. No one can use materia or catalysts without paying a crafter something.

The gatherers and battlers pay back every last gil what they charged crafters for, and more once that crafter is done with them.