I really wish they'd add new item/materia achievements if their intent is to funnel people towards spiritbonding, it's just a little bit more dull grinding stuff without some meaningless number to work towards.

Not pleased with the low level junk either way though. Minium has fringe use in carbonweave stuff iirc, but not so much any of it needed to be flooded to this degree since it's still a 200gc seal mat, and adding to high-end airship ventures is just kind of insulting. At least you can use birch branches in lvl 60 gc turn-ins zz. The fuck am I supposed to do with silver ore / electrum ore? It's not even worth the retainer slot to try selling it. Oh boy I can craft hardsilver nuggets at higher base cost than just buying it from the Vath npc.

If they wanted to include more "not-materia" fail-states I mean, there's always deep-color clusters, crafting crystals/clusters, even mats that are ACTUALLY RELEVANT TO THE CURRENT TIER like lumythrite sand or aurum regis sand.