Alexandrite  

Something that occurred to me concerning the Alexandrite situation:

When Alexandrite was first introduced, I figured SE's major reason was economic. There's a pool of elite players out there with so much money they're economically disjunct from the rest of us. The things the general playerbase can provide to them won't ever put a dent into their pocketbook. The few items expensive enough to matter are non-consumable, and so end up just being bought and sold among a small circle of them, serving as stores of value the way paintings and art do for the real-life rich.

I've always felt that the targets for Mythic and Relic upgrades were these players -- the rest of "us" were supposed to realize they were out of reach and give up. The system for Relic currency seems to work pretty well, but Alexandrite availability became a problem for two reasons: Weapons for mages that aren't just toys; and too few people conceding to economic reality.

To sum up, Dynamis currency and Alexandrite serve as a way to re-distribute the gil from the hyper-wealthy back among the general player base. Unlike the occasional HNM lucky-drop loot, the flow is one-way with the currency being (mostly) consumed during the upgrade quest, and is spread-out over a large portion of the playerbase.