I’m trying to understand the reason for removing research notes from salvaging stat-swapped ascended gear. Was the effect on material demand large enough to justify keeping that method out, even though it gave unwanted ascended drops and spirit shards another use?
One possible rationale is that research notes were meant to encourage spending materials, helping balance their value. If stat-swapping and salvaging gear reduced the need to use other material-consuming methods, removing that route could support the intended sink.
That explains the design logic, but it doesn’t show how large the effect was. The method may have been convenient without being the cheapest way to get notes.
There was still a practical benefit to the old option. It made an unwanted ascended drop more useful than selling it for a small amount, and it gave spirit shards another use. Other ways to get notes existing doesn’t necessarily replace that convenience.
That’s a reason players might want the option back, but it doesn’t by itself answer whether restoring it would affect material demand enough to matter.
The key question is the size of the economic effect, and the discussion doesn’t establish that. To judge whether the change was warranted, you’d need evidence about how much this method was used and whether it meaningfully changed demand for the materials used in other note-making methods.
Without that, the rationale and the inconvenience are both understandable, but neither settles whether the removal was necessary.
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