Waste of Gil.

Materia is super expensive to buy, and you need a lot more than the weekly options give you since it gets discarded with every upgrade.
Also, if I sell the ones I get for free, it's about 500k per piece, so I have to decide between having 1212 Spellspeed or "only" 1200....OR getting that beautiful new glamour gear/furniture/hairstyle/minion/whatever it is.
The gear is gonna be outdated in a few weeks again already, the glamour gear and furniture and minions stay with me forever and are still useful and nice 3 years later.

Why would I waste it on gear, then?

(To be honest, I actually do meld my gear though. But decided to only do it to the final pick of the patch, the 270 gear, so no melds on 250 and 260 for now).