Materia and pre patch items

[Zarvlad]

I can't think of any reason for why this would be in the first place. Except that the new items might have new stats or ID number that makes it possible to attach materia while old items don't have this?
:S

This would be the most plausible situation, that would also assume the costs for changing the whole items database was too high/risky, and they wanted to play it safe.

For the 50ies it's not that much of a big deal, but for the lower ranked people, I feel for them.