I agree, doing a 400 point Faction and then opening the chest to get crystals is a real kick in the balls. They should at least give a decent gil reward amount or... I don't know, but anything other than crystals
Three of us used up points recently and did 4 Factions each (two Broken Blade and Buffalo twice) and also helped out someone in the LS do 2 more Buffalo; out of 14 leves we received 5 drops and the rest were crystals. I actually count that as pretty lucky considering the stories I have heard.