I am not making an argument as to whether or not I personally believe (from a game balance standpoint) HQ mats should always result in HQ result; speaking personally, I'm perfectly fine with a system where HQ results are completely dependent on my own skill and available abilities. I am not particularly concerned about metagame evaluations of the relative market value of HQ results, either, as I don't much care about crafting for profit right now. My experience is primarily based upon crafting HQ items that are unavailable in the market, for direct use by me and my friends.

I created this thread because the players were sold on a system where HQ mats are required for HQ synthesis, but in exchange for this new requirement, HQ synthesis would be guaranteed. This is not the system we received, and (to my knowledge) Yoshida has yet to address this departure from a feature that he himself directly promised.