Awakening should be moved to Rank 5, away Rank 10, and here is why.

If Awakening was moved to Rank 5, instead of requiring Rank 10, it would be a win/win for players of all types and also Blizzard.

• You'd be able to purchase the awakening item and experience the helpful effects like -10% CDR even on */5-star gems, which is normally locked to large whales currently.
• Since some gems cannot be traded, such as if they came from non-Eternal crests found in packs, at least if you have a bound gem you don't want to use, you have an alternate option of slotting it into your awakened gem via the Resonant system.
• Since Rank 5 is more financially attainable on */5-star gems, it would likely upsell some players, to get access to this system, and it's affects. Additionally, it would incentivize players to focus on one gem first, which may not be the best for resonance gain, which is a potential upsell for Blizzard and options for players.
• This gives higher star count gems even more value at lower ranks, as star-count affects awakened slot count, thus making selling a high-count-star gem for a ton of platinum not always the best choice for low spenders. Another potential upsell for Blizzard and option for players.
• Ranks 7-10 are still insanely expensive and locked to dolphins/whales only, but existing whales will still have their high resonance even if this change was implemented. So even "class warfare" (I'm a whale and you should lose to me period-types) don't have much to complain about.
• All those 1-star and 2-star gems you can make from runes, etc. would be relevant for your Resonant slotting purposes (awakened slotting), thus giving 1-star and 2-star gems increased value than just a small amount of gem power.
• While you build up enough gem power for the next Rank on your main legendary gems, having the Resonant system available gives you a place to [even temporarily] get value out of your gems (esp. bound ones) instead of just sitting in your bag. Makes the gaps between ranks feel less void, a win for players and possibly for sales.

It certainly would make investing in */5-star gems feel better, give the non-Eternal crests more personal value, increase player options, and generate sales.

It's also a presumably an easy to implement change, assuming some spaghetti code isn't hard wired to Rank 10. No other core changes across the entire product are needed to implement this.

There's so many things you could change about this game, esp. the debate on monetization, but I just feel so strongly this would be an amazing change for all parties.