Dying bench, by Rube Goldberg

This explanation is difficult to accept. This game is how old? And you are just now thinking of unifying the button layout? The old UI worked just fine, and I cannot recall ever having a new player getting confused over it.

Plus, you want to “justify” the physical size of the bench? You do realize the bench doesn’t have to be that large. Just make a smaller tier 2 bench and let players go back to using looted dye when they find it.