I read all posts and haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. There are recipes, that seem to require exactly those torn/molding/brittle items to make a vintage version of that item. From what I saw, it has more slots but not sure about the stats. So the basic system is already there, they'd only have to build upon it. Crafting/Gathering got degraded too much imho, so that would be a good alternative to farming tomes. Which is pretty boring, I'd rather craft and gather.

@Felis: yeah, remember going to Ifrit hard as a gatherer and stunning him? :P