1 Materia makes any crafted item better than any NM/Raid/Dungeon item. Why?

[Frein]

It is his subjective opinion that effort put into obtaining certain gear is not worth what it rewards. It is also wrong to assume that everybody cheats. It's obvious to me he's just ranting cause he's mad. I mean, what armour did they add in this patch from raids? The sipahi gear? It looks pretty good to me. Certain pieces such as head, waist, feet, legs, body can only have particular materia attached to them, and in some cases there are unique/untradable options that are better, and I for sure see them implementing such items in the future.

Here's the new R/EX Sentinel's Cuirass: http://www.ffxivpro.com/item/8030112/sentinels-cuirass

Here's Cobalt Cuirass (Red): http://www.ffxivpro.com/item/8030114/cobalt-cuirass-red

Which do you think is easier to get and which is better? Obviously the Cobalt Cuirass, despite being only a L49 piece, is not only dirt cheap to make, it's also clearly better even without materia.

Then let's look at Darkhold gear:

Here's Solid Scale Mail: http://www.ffxivpro.com/item/8031608/solid-scale-mail

Here's Cobalt Haubergeon (Red): http://www.ffxivpro.com/item/8031723...haubergeon-red

The haubergeon clearly comes ahead in terms of offense, though the extra HP on the mail adds some extra survivability. But what happens when you plop pretty much any materia into the haubergeon? That's right, it becomes clearly superior. Now which do you think is easier to get? The haubergeon made of cheap and common materials or the mail that requires you to beat a dungeon most people still haven't cleared once?

I could do this all day long because there pretty much are no R/EX items worth wearing at 50.