"Add X Tools!"

The most age-old and common suggestion I have seen is to add tools for every mineral. "Add Emerald tools!" "Add Lapis tools!" And more recently, "Add Copper tools!" 

And almost always, posts on forums or subreddits that suggest these are removed. Because these have been suggested to death. And Minecraft devs themselves have said multiple times that these minerals will never have craftable tools. But why are people so desperate to see Emerald, Copper, Lapis, Obsidian, and even Redstone tools added to Minecraft? Does Minecraft even NEED Emerald tools?

To me, I see this as a two-pronged issue. It likely stems both from people wanting more tool tiers in general, and people wanting more uses for certain minerals.

There is no denying that the current tool system is very much lacking, with a huge gap in performance between iron and diamond, and an incredibly quick progression to the top. There are very few tiers in general, and some of them, such as leather and gold, are functionally useless - so much so they've recently been adding special uses to these tiers just to get ANYONE to use them. It's hardly surprising that most people want to see a new tool tier that bridges the gap between iron and diamond. But, to me, it's also clear that Emerald or Lapis is not the right choice for this. I personally absolutely feel there needs to be a tier or even two between iron and diamond, but I think they'd have to add an entirely new mineral. The same way Netherite was a new mineral added to be "better than diamond".

The other issue is that people seem to always want more uses for various minerals, and the "easiest" suggestion is to simply add a new tool tier for the mineral. But are the non-core minerals really that useless?

Why Non-Tool Minerals DON'T Need Tools!

A lot of people feel that if certain minerals aren't used for making tools, they are somehow "useless". Interestingly, this doesn't seem to be the case for more common non-tool minerals such as Coal. I don't see anyone suggesting Coal tools be added.

It tends to be the more niche minerals, such as Lapis, Redstone, Copper, Amethyst, Obsidian and Emerald where people frequently suggest tool tiers for them. Other than the new additions, which I will discuss later, all these minerals serve their purposes elsewhere in the game. 

Emeralds are not for swordmaking, they're for trading. They're Villager currency. That is the role of Emeralds in Minecraft. And that is perfectly fine. They don't need to be any more than that. Especially since Village and Pillage when trading became a far more viable method of obtaining resources. (Tangent: I find people have been requesting Emerald tools far less since Village and Pillage when trading improved significantly. Coincidence?)

Lapis actually WAS given an extra use back in 1.8. Before then, it was used only as a blue dye. Now, it's the mineral needed to enchant. It doesn't need to be made into tools and armor, it already has its two uses. And yes it is true you will usually have WAY more lapis than you will ever need, but adding Lapis tools is not going to fix this problem, as you will likely still have way more lapis than you will ever need. Excessive lapis can be turned into a building block, anyways. The block may not be everyone's cup of tea, but the option is still there.

Redstone certainly doesn't need new tools. It has a very distinct usage as Minecraft's circuitry. Seriously, WHAT would Redstone tools bring to the table? A cool red texture? Redstone is also shown to be a very soft mineral in Minecraft, so even if they DID make tools, they'd probably break faster than Gold.

Obsidian tools are also not necessary, as its main use is to get players to the Nether. Also, since you can't get Obsidian until you have Diamond, any Obsidian tool would need to be better than Diamond. This is obviously a terrible idea given how easy Obsidian is to obtain in basically infinite quantities. And Netherite serves the purpose of being better than Diamond.

Perhaps the ONLY mineral I was shocked to not see tools for was Copper. As a metal, it DID seem like the most viable option to, maybe as an alloy, bridge the gap between iron and diamond. And as Copper has so few uses at the moment, I thought it would make sense to add Copper tools. But that won't be happening, so I guess we just have to wait and see what Mojang does choose to do with Copper. Whereas the minerals I discussed above all have their niches in the game, Copper does not. Copper is currently used in two crafting recipes and a block. I do wonder if in future, Copper will find its niche.

Amethyst also has very few uses, but tools for Amethyst just wouldn't make sense in my opinion. I hope, though, that this too will find its niche. Mojang have hinted more uses will be coming for the 1.17 minerals in future updates. But I guess we just have to wait and see for that.

Final Word

In short, I don't think minerals that aren't used for tool-making are useless, and I don't think they need to have tools added. I can absolutely understand and respect Mojang's decision to not add tools for these minerals. They serve their other uses in the game just fine. But the more niche ones do seem to have people suggesting tools for them because they want to see more uses for them, and they want more tiers in general. Suggesting a new tier for a "useless" tool is killing two birds with one stone to these people. But in my mind, there is only one bird that needs killing, here. The game DOES need another tier in between iron and diamond, but (minus the new additions) the non-tool minerals are fine as they are.