I'm turning towards the idea of a cap of the possible stats, as it'll revive the I, II and III materia markets. It'll just be more of a pain in regards to alexandrites if they are the ONLY catalyst being used.

And considering that the zodiac weapon saga has done much in terms of 'using' old content and reviving aspects of the game that end-game people don't go to anymore (FATEs, Leves, Dungeons, beastmen strongholds), I wouldn't put it past them to have them revive the lower level materia markets.

So....either spend a ransom or get very lucky when SBing to get IVs and use minimal amounts of alexandrites, or go the safer option and farm up alexandrites to meld more I, II and III materia?