I know there are other threads, but I agree, I think one big issue is that NM gear isn't meldable or convertable. By not being able to have crafters augment these gears, or for us to convert them into materia really drives down the usage factor.

I would love to see the ability for these gears to be farmed. If you convert it into materia then you might want to go get another one, especially if the gear itself turned into a good grade of mateira. And being able to augment the gear with materia then you would have the opportunity to try and attach more then one piece, and if it blows up then more reason to run the content again.

My hope is that the reason we can't do this now is that they are still working on the UI to allow crafters to attach materia for us without having to trade the gear. But time will only tell.