I thought this was supposed to be some sort of upgrade perk, going to lite, therefore crystal should go away.

Litesubs are already constricted by licenses, there's no reason to have this further restriction, especially not on a paid account.

I can see the crystal cost of some low level stuff going away like the Centurion or Revenant, but it doesn't make sense to remove it for higher stuff.

But it's so easy to make crystals.

Right, but why litesub if you can just do f2p and get the same stuff?

f2p doesn't include PC access.

Since I know basically nothing about the details of the crystal economy, I'm not going to comment on changes to that system other than to say that I more or less agree with the idea behind what arf suggested.

What about giving Lite sub players some additional ways of earning Crystal not normally available to regular free players, such as earning a race track top time (once per day per track), inflicting casualties in the Deneb war, and capturing Purified Xithricite Ore, up to the value of what their monthly Lite sub fee would have purchased in Crystal?

Additionally, what about allowing Lite sub players to transfer a small amount of Crystal to other players each month, up to the value of what their Lite sub fee would have purchased (no Crystal is actually created in this case)?

There may be some more creative solutions to addressing the value gap between Lite and free in Crystal without resorting to removing it altogether.

Also, as Rin mentioned, the Lite sub fee is presently to allow PC access.

Is there a comprehensive guide to crystal mechanics somewhere?

It's been my impression that since the rollout of Crystal the plan has been to eventually phase out the Lite-Sub. Granted, Incarnate has never said anything specific along these lines, but it just seems like the next logical step once the Crystal process has been tweaked.