I do admit to the disappointment of knowing that the abilities only increase chances of getting /shards/ - I was hoping that crystals would be involved some day. However, that is neither here nor there.

This is localization forum: If they don't want to leave the ability's description at "Increases affinity" and wants to use the end result "Increases chances of getting [item]" then we're all set here. After the gathering classes get their revamp (After battle and synthesis adjustments, probably), if they still haven't done anything about these skills being rather useless, we can start a new movement in the appropriate place.