Suggestions

I'm always here for another way to remove dragons from the system, wouldn't mind if this counted for dominance either. Support!

I think this could also provide a way to get different eye colors. Maybe a vial to "infuse a nest with [flight] magic"?

I strongly support this. There are a lot of people who are anti-exalting because they equate it with death, even though FR has said that canonically it isn't. This is much harder for players to headcanon as death (while there are probably still some who will turn this dark as "Baldwin experiments on them"), and still gets dragons out of the database, which we need.

The thing with XP is that's only useful if your cauldron isn't maxed out. Every now and again FR decides to raise the level cap and I find out my cauldron isn't maxed out anymore, but it doesn't take a super long time for me to max it out again because I visit Baldwin every day. So I would find XP less useful than treasure/gems or a random mat dropping, like a Yellow Goo or something.

The Genetic Points thing, though, is interesting, and would be even more interesting if I could apply that to get an increased chance of, say, the ever-elusive Purple Sludge.

wholehearted support! this would really shake things up when it comes to funneling out dragons from the system, and i like that it gives inherent value to dragons beyond treasure and gems. not to mention, genetic points would be INCREDIBLY valuable for breeding projects without completely breaking the system and possibly tanking the economy. upped chances, not a full on guarantee. that's something the majority of the player base has been wanting, and i think tying it to baldwin would be a good idea.

I really like this idea !! I'm highly in favor of the idea of earning "genetics points" that you can use to affect things like the odds of hatchling a specific gender or the relative weight of the genes/breed of the parents or shrinking the color range available to a nest. I think perks related to breeding would be essential for generating widespread use of a feature like this (since the target population is players who are more involved in breeding etc).

As mentioned be others, this would be hard to connect to brewing XP and brewing is already a super established thing that many people have maxed out. You could connect this to gene brewing, I suppose... spend a certain number of genetic points instead of the treasure you'd usually spend to brew a gene, for example. I dunno if the Baldwin genes are popular enough to generate that much participation though. (Slime/sludge is so underrated, but that's a separate issue LOL) I am annoyed that I have to spend about a million years making sulfurs and then still have to spend 100kt to brew some genes.

I also like that this would be separate from dom points, since again the idea would be to supplement the clearing of dragons from the site. Letting this count towards dom (1) sacrifices too much of the point of dom and (2) really doesn't disconnect this mechanism from exalting.

Obviously something like this would require very careful analysis to figure out what perks are appropriate and how to balance a point system to get people to participate without sacrificing too much the randomness of breeding. I would not be in support of having perks be "stackable" on the same nest, for example. But "we need to thoroughly think through the math and economics of that" is far from a reason to oppose pursuing an idea. I like seeing all the discussion about different ways to implement something like this, I think it's a great idea !

i wanna dunk fodder into the cauldron. support!

Oh this is fun, I think I'd have a much easier time actually removing dragons from the system with this! I breed dragons so I'd love a chance to mess around with the hatchling odds, and exalting kinda gives me anxiety (I was introduced to the feature as it literally meaning death so I struggle to think of it any other way) whereas I don't think I'd have the same issue with this.
ESPECIALLY because I'd be getting something out of it.
My Flight is too big for dom to actually be achievable and worth the effort for me. But exalting just for the sake of it has so little reward it doesn't feel worth it do anything but sell the dragons. That's a pain though, markets super big so it takes ages but I stick with it cause ultimately I get more for it than I'll get exalting.

I do think this should also have a restoration system though.
I think how it should work here is that you can restore the dragon for as long as you have the Genetic Points gained from sending it on an apprenticeship. Once you spend those points, you cannot ever get the dragon back. Progens should also not give GP for being sent- just like with exalting.

I think further incentive for people that don't breed would be expensive gene/eye options that, perhaps cannot be sold to others. This would encourage use of the system for those that do not breed or do not breed very often. If these points are genetic points, does it not also make sense to have a usage for people that breed less or not as often?

While I do breed, I don't breed for my goals. I am a G1 lair with some breeders, so all of the parents of my dragons are already what I need. I don't need to skew any odds to get what I want. I would rather exalt than use this system without further incentive because the treasure/occasional gem/s are much more valuable to me. However, if there were some exclusive scrolls that I COULDN'T just buy with treasure or gems, suddenly I am incentivized to use this system next to Baldwin's pre-existing function.

Also, this could be a perfect method of altering eye types of already existing dragons. So many people want an alternative way, so using this to be able to flat out change an eye type could be a solution. Again, if this is done, I don't think the items should be able to be sold. It's very possible this could not even be an item either, but a selection you make from Baldwin's genetics page.