Should you have to be wearing gear you attach to for Materia making?

[TirionCrey]

You can wear your +3 if you wish no one is stopping you.

Also you need to stop thinking that everything is thought out for the ones that are currently level 50. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it starting at level 1. You wear gears, you level up a bit, you change your old gears into materia and you attach it on your new gears. Rinse and repeat. When you reach level 50 and start to get end-game gears, your old gears that you were wearing will be ready to turn into materia to attach to your shiny new gear.

If you are not willing to sacrifice your current gear, then buy it and stop crying. Or just grind materia on lower-gear when you have some free time. Work for your stuff sometimes, you might feel good about it.

This!

And to debunk your argument...the BEST gear would be your Crab Bow+3 PLUS the Materia from another Crab Bow probably...so go figure...

In the end SE gives you the choice, do you want to be hardcore and grind equip to turn into Materia to add it to your best equip, or do you just want to wear whatever is best for you w/o adding Materia. This is a great system. It encourages the hardcore people, while not putting the "casual" players at a big disadvantage, cause if they wear their equip, it will be convertable into materia as well, just later and not as fast as a hardcore person might get it done. Win:Win Situation!