I have tons of materials I don't need, and not enough higher star ones that I do! A conversionethod would be nice. I imagine a transmutation machine, similar to but separate from alchemy machines. Recipes would he stored universally in the machine, so I wouldn't have to buy them. CE and CR costs should be minimal or free. Instead, the cost is in mats. For example, make 10 gel drops into a gel core, 10 gel cores into a brute core, 10 brutes into a rocky. That would burn through mats fast! It would make one more way to get high quality mats, and also increase the value of the tons of junk we end up with.
Instead of buying recipes, the machine is all-knowing. I search it for what I want (e.g. "perfect snowball") and it gives me the recipe. Clicking on an item in the recipe would take me to the crafting cost for that item. Recipes could be adjusted with patch updates to help drain items that are in over abundance.
I like the idea of using a combining method to make better materials, but I don't agree with getting rid of the method to attaining recipes.
While I do seem to be carrying 238 Gel Drops, I also look forward to buying a Vog Cub recipe and selling it for 12k profit, give or take 2k. It's a form of making income for those who can get far enough to attain the recipes and it also provides a service for those who can not and still want/can make their armor and weapons 5-star stuff.