Why No Melds?

[Neophyte]

I personally don't meld that much unless I want to be "totally effective", and even then I don't do raids or extreme so why would I even bother? I can only meld secondary stats and how many of them are actually useful? Exactly.

Crit for all, Strenth for tanks, accuracy for the healers and SS for BLM. Those are "effective" enough to feel the impact usually.

What things, which you can buy with gil (besides crafted gear), are more useful than this?

After all the fluff (like you have all your glamours you want and earn a house/appartment) the main focus of this game is battle content. And that's why I focus my spendings on that type of contents. After having all my fluff the only options are either 1. get more and more money or 2. get more AP. I don't see the point in "1.", especially if you do it only for the sake of it.

I rather clear contents (even the slightest) faster, than just to have a number growing up in my upper right corner of the screen.