While interesting I still think a 4th stone option with a bit of stats would've been nice but I think I see this was mostly an experiment and design challenge to make it this way compared to your regular stat sticks.
Yeah, upgrading the ring was really easy- just bought all the gem dust I'd need in total, put out a couple orders for the upgrade stones for 2k a pop, one finished and the guy messaged me, so cancelled the other public order and sent five orders for him at 500g a pop. Maybe 5k gold in total for a 424 ring with the best stones for my spec by Wednesday noon.You get a ton of Vault Keys just doing content, not even poaching them from alts like it's possible to do. That results in a ton of stones.