Well think of it this way. If they removed the prices what do you think would be one of the most asked question on their FAQ. I am pretty sure it would be how much is a lightsaber crystal worth? Why not nip those questions in the bud and save themselves the headache? I understand FFGs intent. You don't like because you feel that GMs should just know. Not every GM is your skill level. For some this is the first game they are going to GM at all. Giving them a hand up is a good thing. And saving their email boxes from questions they can answer just by including prices for something that not including prices will guarantee being asked seems smart.

Even magic items have a cost (or level equivalent) these days so that GM's can eyeball it. Their usefulness is relative. I don't mind the costs as I see them only being useful for comparisons. After character creation they would (for me) only come into play when deciding on the value of an object that is going to be found or discovered or retrieved or what have you. Much like a tricked out suit of Mandalorian armour or a specialty combat rifle (multiple forms) like the ones carried by the clone commandos or characters like Zeb in Rebels.

They are easy to ignore if you so choose.

If I was GM’ing, if the starting Force user had either the Lightsaber skill or a Saber-Spec I would just charge them the 300 credits for the basic hilt. This hilt would also include a basic crystal (6 Damage, Crit 2, Breach 1 and Sunder). They acquired the crystal as part of their back story.

The reason for this is that the other players are going to have a (somewhat) easier time acquiring new gear from the various encounters they overcome. Whereas the Force user, is pretty much going to stick with the same weapon for the entire campaign, upgrading and modifying it as he goes (at least how I would see it play out).

Now if they lost it, well there is an adventure in either getting it back or getting a new crystal and starting over.

If I was GM’ing, if the starting Force user had either the Lightsaber skill or a Saber-Spec I would just charge them the 300 credits for the basic hilt. This hilt would also include a basic crystal (6 Damage, Crit 2, Breach 1 and Sunder). They acquired the crystal as part of their back story.

To be fair, there's plenty of reason to believe that the final fluff will include strongly-worded suggestions that even starting characters acquire a basic saber early-on in their careers, much sooner than one would normally expect to amass 9,000+ credits per character, effectively bypassing the list price. The short adventure in the Beta has such an item (albeit, not a full Ilum crystal) as a reward.

I say keep knight level play out of the rulebook. Make it a GM screen rule section and give it some space.

I think the GM and Players have three choices:
Player buys a LS for 10k.

Player foregoes the 10k and writes into his background how he came about the LS.

Player gets 10k, foregoes 8-9k, and either, before or during, the first session he and the GM plays out a mini adventure that earns him the LS.

Then have a list or random table that helps the GM with the challenge(s) the players will have to overcome to get his crystal, and some assist in how to play through this mini-adventure.

The adventure with the screen could be a Knight Level adventure too.

Option 2 isn't explained very well, but that is that the LS has no cost, it is priceless. But the player could just obtain one pre-game by explaining how he got it and otherwise just has his starting money for other gear.

This is certainly an interesting idea. For me, removing the cost of crystals has two sides.

On one hand, it decommodifies (is that a word?) the item and makes it something more important. This makes a lightsaber more than just a checkbox for a Force user (or even a normie who wants to own one). I do feel that a lot of high value gear should be used as adventuring rewards rather than simple shopping trips, and this would make that acquisition something special. This would also potentially takes lightsabers off the table for creation and general acqusition, something that I think desperately needs to be done.

On the other hand though, taking the price away from crystals makes lightsaber crystals something of a special snowflake (even more so). One thing I've enjoyed with these games is that they cut a lot of the crap and largely treat everything in the rules in the same fashion. Lighsabers aren't necessarily arbitrarily harder to acquire, tedious to build, nor is anything the Force more difficult to learn than any other skill, talent, or specialization. By removing the cost attached to crystals, you make that crystal into a special case that requires special treatment again, something that this game has taken great lengths to avoid. There are also the complications that others have brought up regarding lazy GMs who do not wish to spend the effort needed to place crystals in the rules. This might sound harsh, but this really isn't as hard as people are making it out to be, though the argument does carry a small about of merit.

I'm not really sure where I sit on the matter. There i something to be gained with either solution here, so there really is no one better option.