Badges do make you a lot stronger relatively on later stages of the game. as a 71k stat player without a pottable badge - upgrading my gear to the point where it would be equivalent to how it is right now but with a pottable badge would cost me several thousands of cubes if I'm not unlucky. the fact that players that have their characters made and geared before the change was made have THOUSANDS of dollars of advantage over other endgame players in terms of cost per stat is absurdly unfair.
With the upcoming damage cap increase and future update to accommodate that sort of change I feel like not having a pottable badge will continue to increase the disparity in how much I and players like me would have to fund ourselves in order to match our peers that have access to that sort of stat boosting.
That being said, I'd like to propose a solution which is rather far-fetched but I believe it will fit the GMS meta perfectly while maintaining the existing options for badges relevant to how they're being obtained. Currently, the badge which is technically the hardest to get and should (but isn't) be the best-in-slot is Black Mage's Genesis Badge. Unfortunately, this badge is being outshined by the 7-Day Monster Parker Medal + Badge combination that provide players with better stat and more availability for the most part (KMS included). Therefore, why not change the characteristics of the Genesis Badge in order to make it the true best badge in the game in a way that fits the concept of it. Why not add a story line driven enhancement process to the Genesis Badge much like the liberation of the Genesis Weapon - or lifting the curse off of Kaiserium. This way players could work within the already existing story of the game to gain benefits that put them on par (or even ahead) of the old pottable badges in a meaningful way. Such a change will increase the prestige of the badge, the pitched boss set and the Black Mage fight itself, turning it from something you need to do 8 times to get the strongest weapon and then forget about to something you WANT to repeatedly do to get your lucky chance at another strongest equipment that is intertwined within the game story. This sort of change should be a win-win situation in terms of world building and character progression.
