Quote Originally Posted by Eli85 View Post
Eh the opposite is true. Players who raid raid for i) the challenge and ii) the upgrade. You take out the upgrades and motivation for some (not all players) drops.

Also you have some fallacies. I see players gear in-game melded. So yeah, people do meld their gear.
Ok there's exceptions but generally players don't meld. It's been a bit topic since they added materia. And a fairly common opinion is gear doesn't last long enough to bother melding it. Which is why so much of the t6 materia ends up on the markets because the til is worth more than a temporary stat boost.