Materia on all gear.. Why not?

[Akuun]

Also:

The only way you could attach materia to untradeable gear is by doing it yourself. This would restrict materia equipped gear to those who have 1) the gear itself, 2) the approprate job high enough to use it, and 3) the appropriate crafting job high enough to meld it.

It locks out a decent portion of the population from owning a single piece of lvl ~50 gear, much less multiple pieces.

To add materia to undtradeble gear would require a whole new system by which a crafter could attach materia to gear that remains in another persons inventory. They may implement a system like this in the 2.0, but I don't think they are going to drop everything to do it now when Yoshi-P has clearly stated his intended design for the hierarchy of gear.

Dying and materia should simply be an optional thing for any player to use to customize or improve his or her gear.