Way back in the day, spiritbonding would break your gear and give you materia, yes. so each time you would spiritbond you had to re-craft everything
Funny enough as well, from what I remember, way back in the day prior to streamlining, to get Grade V materia for crafters and gatherers you had to spiritbond Carbonweave (2* i170) or above, since the materia was classified as i160, and not i150, so you couldn't get it with the baseline set