I really think that there should be a vanilla way to do this, like perhaps having a blacksmith npc rarely spawn throughout villages, and for a price he will upgrade certain factors but eventually they become unable to improve? Not really sure if there are threads on this but I really thought this would be a good idea, what do you guys think??
Probably the wrong part of the forum to put it in (might wanna try suggestions matey). On topic: sounds like a good idea, I'd also like to be able to spend a smaller amount to improve the quality of an item using pixels so I can save the raw materials for other items.