Things that are problematic for some aren’t so for others, but that goes both ways. In this case the other way is the players who have accumulated lots of materials already, and could thus produce several, even dozens of Veteran items immediately. They need to be taken into account if the kind of conversion you suggest is done.
Your request isn’t unique, by the way. There was a thread of decent length about exactly the same issue about a month ago. As I made long post about my thinking, and a few more messages as clarifications and further thoughts, I won’t bother retyping (or even copypasting) everything but instead just give you a link.
As a TL;DR though, the problem isn’t really in the items but in the annoying crafting system (which is the only thing giving any real worth to the Veteran items in the first place). Make that better, and/or give an additional way to work towards chosen red weapons, and the problem likely goes away.