Alternative to mending that involves the natural gameplay loop

Problem:

Mending is annoying, even if you go through the getting process (which involves trading, slavery or finding it as very rare loot), you can't turn off mending and get experience for yourself instead of the tool, and it is indeed seen as a necessity because it removes the hassle of having to be all leveled up and making new perfect tools. So, I've come up with a way that doesn't make having infinite weapons OP and makes it fun and hard to get, involving core gameplay so it's fun and makes you want to explore, mine and craft

Solution:

First, remove mending and add a system or new workbench in which you have to feed 40 or so diamonds to the tool you want to be infinite

Then, add different alternatives to that. Maybe you can feed it 20 diamonds and a new ore that is even rarer than diamonds and fills in the void you have when you're mining and want to find something more special since you already have lots of diamonds. Getting this new ore could involve more skill and inventory management because it's more common in a different type of cave, for example

Maybe, instead of feeding it a new ore, use echo shards or even netherite. Or maybe all three. Or maybe something you find by exploring and getting to new structures

Why it's good for the game:

With this gathering method, you have lots of alternatives on how you want to make your tool infinite and let the player make choices. It also allows them to have an excuse to explore and go mining even if they already have everything