[This could also belong in the Graphics section, as it pertains partly to the mechanical functions of textures in-game, but I feel it fits more accurately in Blocks, Tools, and Items.]
First, I believe the variant stones (andesite, diorite, and granite) ought to be retextured. Their current textures clash too much with ordinary stone and give off the impression that they're a different type of material altogether, when they ought to be designed to blend in smoothly with ordinary stone. These variant stones should also have their own variants of the blocks that can be made from generic stone (slabs, stairs, stone bricks) to give them more utility beyond just being different-looking alternatives to the default, and generic stone should be given its own polished equivalent to match the three variants' polished versions.
Second, the way ores spawn should be more dynamic. As it is, ores can only appear in generic stone because ores are treated as their own blocks with the generic stone texture as their base (excluding quartz, which only spawns in netherrack). My proposal is that ores be changed from unique blocks using the generic stone texture as a base texture into a block state that can apply to any solid block; ore textures should simply be the ores themselves, with a transparent background instead of a stone block background, and if a generated block contains an ore, that ore's texture should overlay itself onto the sides of the block to give the same appearance as ore blocks currently have. Ores should be able to spawn by default in any of the existing stone types (stone, andesite, granite, diorite), so that the variant stones are not completely useless to miners seeking mineral resources. Mining an ore block should depend on which tool is most effective for the block containing the ore, and mining an ore block with an appropriate tool should be guaranteed to drop the block containing the ore alongside the ore itself.
To accommodate this change, the new items Iron Ore and Gold Ore should be created; rather than receiving full blocks when iron/gold ore is mined, players should receive ore items that are then smelted into ingots (I don't have any proposal for alternative uses for these ore items, though a new villager type could be introduced called the Miner who trades emeralds for unsmelted ore items). If a player mines an ore block using a pickaxe with Silk Touch, they should receive the corresponding block with the ore still intact - for instance, if a player used Silk Touch to mine a block of andesite containing emerald ore, they should receive a block of andesite containing emerald ore. Rather than creating new unique blocks for every single type of block that could contain ore, the ore contents of a block could simply be stored as data the same way a shulker box's contents are saved, with ore-laden blocks being unable to stack with any other blocks unless they are the same type and contain the same ore.
The primary downside to altering ore spawns in this way (apart from the time and resources needed to rewrite the game code to allow for it) is that it would require player-made content to be reworked. Namely, texture packs would need to update their ore textures to no longer include the stone background, and mods that add new types of ores/place existing ores in new blocks would need to be altered to fit the new spawning system. An additional minor downside is that, for players working with ore blocks in Survival mode, this would potentially create a non-insignificant amount of inventory clutter; this same clutter could be avoided in Creative mode by adding Creative-only "ore egg" consumables, similar to monster eggs, where right-clicking any valid block would bestow it with the ore contained within the egg.
The upsides of this change, I feel, would be more significant. For one, while it would temporarily disrupt existing mods and texture packs, it would make it marginally easier for future player-made content centering around ores to be produced; with ores capable of generating in any solid block by default, any players that add their own ores to the game via mods would be able to very easily tell the game "this is an ore - have it spawn in the following places, inside the following blocks, and using the following texture" rather than creating a new ore block (or multiple) and adding it to the game's block library and world generation system. Furthermore, it would make the variant stones more useful to players, as miners seeking out mineral ores would have reason to mine and search through andesite, diorite, and granite, rather than completely ignoring them in favor of generic stone. It could also serve to make these variant stones feel more fitting alongside generic stone if ore veins were able to bridge between materials (e.g. a vein of gold ore spawned right on the border between generic stone and diorite would occupy both blocks, rather than spawning in the generic stone and completely avoiding the diorite).
The ability to spawn ores in any solid blocks would also add a significant layer to world generation customization options; if players were given the option to modify which blocks ores can spawn in, they could do anything from making quartz appear in the Overworld, to making gold and iron spawn in the Nether and End, to making redstone spawn exclusively in ice spikes and glaciers, to having diamonds and emeralds grow from trees - it would add a huge amount of customization potential that, while many players might not make use of it, would certainly add a lot of interesting choices for the players who do. These options would be even further expanded with the addition of ore spawn eggs, with which players in Creative mode could freely embed ores in materials that even world generation may not allow, such as bricks, wool blocks, sponges - even blocks made from other precious minerals! I believe this change, while it would be a big one, would ultimately open up a lot of new options for players without significantly impacting the flow of the game.
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To summarize: Rather than being their own distinct blocks, ores should be treated as a blockstate that can be applied to any solid block, making it much easier to have existing ores as well as any future ones spawn in blocks other than generic stone, and providing more utility for non-stone blocks. Also, the three variant stone blocks should have their textures and crafting trees modified to fit in more with the original generic stone.
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