At launch, the given reason for the nine-fold increase in secondary mats such as hardened sap was to limit the amount of iLVL 70 gear in the market. Since we're 40 iLVLs over this, there's no reason for us to spend 22,500 seals to make one two-star BASE item, which is only used for a small handful of purposes these days.

It shouldn't be a master pain to get master book acquisition, in short. The grind for the tools, spiritbonding for materia for max melds and time consumed making the items is painful enough.