I agree wholeheartedly with pretty much this whole thread, and it kinda ties into my thread about crafting battle gear. Plain and simple this is the problem we see SE, materia takes a lot of time and/or money and/or work to get/make, but once you use it you move on to a better piece and you lose it. Then there's the fact that most if not all of the gear we actually need or care about doesn't use materia. I really really want materia, and gear crafting in general to have more of a real use in the game and not just be something that we can do but is not needed or even helpful really.