Maybe I'm missing something, but quality holmium is not really worse, it's the same but in smaller quantities. You're producing quality stone together with it in your recyclers in the same ratio, so effectively you have 5 kinds of holmium and 5 kinds of stone to deal with, each of which processes ...

TL;DR
I believe the UI should remind the player in some way that they can't craft an Epic or Legendary item just yet.
What?
The only place in the game I've found which says what levels of Quality you have unlocked is in the research for Quality modules.
I think there should be a way to see ...