The Final Fantasy XI team has posted a very short Q&A with regard to the December version update. The team answers questions about content adjustments, recipes, increased enemy damage, and PS2 issues.
Q: After the recent maintenance, the cost of augmented items increased from 1,000 Dominion notes to 2,500. I understand the need to control gil flow, but was it not possible to just lower resale prices instead?
A: Lowering the resale price of these items was an option we considered as well. As the items in question are augmented versions of equipment obtainable via Synergy, however, we came to the conclusion that such a measure would have undesirable effects on crafters. Raising the cost in Dominion notes was deemed to be the fairest solution.