A Theory About Time Crystals

I've been staring at The Time Monster for awhile now (for a project) and a little theory about time crystals started to unravel in my head. Follow me on this journey:

The dimensional intersection of Space and Time can be a deceptively fragile thing. Much can go wrong in its intertwining and when the vortex itself is interfered with, it can produce unusual consequences. One of these side-effects -- as implied by the creation of the Timelash -- is the manifestation of a physical entity in the vortex itself. Something that looks something like a crystalline reef and implies an action not unlike that between oxygen and moisture against steel. These time reefs are essentially the vortex's equivalent of rust.

Harvested from the reef, the crystals themselves can be brought back into normal space and modified. They're quite handy little things. After all, anything caught in its energy field exists in a unique relationship with Time. You can delay the visible passage of time, project energy back along its original trajectory, etc. It's possible to cheat Time. Concentrate them in a large enough mass, though, and you can run the risk of becoming ensnared within its matrix. If the vortex has an ecosystem, then they'd essentially be its equivalent of the Venus flytrap on Earth. Trapping anything from your garden-variety vortisaur to something as powerful as, say... a Chronovore?

I wonder if instead of diving for pearls, the Time Lords once instead went diving for crystals? I wonder if there are societies out there who have turned the exercise into a bizarre cross between bungee jumping and a fishing competition?