Not Enough Headroom

One allowance here buys 12,960 EXP, which places it 5th of the 6 Lv 20 Armorer tradecraft leves that record EXP — a figure 1 other leve on the rung matches exactly. The best of them, No Hand-me-downs, returns 21,600 EXP for the same allowance, 67% more.

Across that rung the return runs from 12,960 EXP to 21,600 EXP per allowance — 4 distinct figures spanning 67%, so the wrong pick leaves 8,640 EXP of the allowance unspent.

On whether to wait: the best Lv 25 Armorer tradecraft leve returns 69,150 EXP per allowance, 220% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 15 rung behind tops out at 18,910 EXP.

At Lv 20 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 17,352 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 113,304 EXP, which puts this leve 25% below its own category's average.

Gil ranks it differently: 150 gil per allowance is 6th of 6 on the same rung against 5th on EXP, with the best there paying 330 gil.

Iron Celata ×1 is a Lv 20 Armorer recipe, 3 steps deep through 3 intermediates, costing 15 units of raw material and 10 crystals.

Handing that in returns 864 EXP and 10 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows, and the tree needs Armorer and Blacksmith.