Is there a future?

[Kristal]

Legit players sell gil to websites which in turn market it back to players.

That was the case in the old days, when RMT started in EQ as a mom&pop middleman thing and quickly blossomed into the hackfest it is today. While some RMT do buy gil, it's at fractions of their sell value since they can do it cheap themselves. Almost all gil sold by RMT comes from bots, with some account hacks when it was possible. It is in the RMT's best interest to cause massive inflation in economies, so that players cannot make enough for their own daily expenses and are forced to buy gil just to play. (A couple of years ago, prices of expensive goods tripled overnight, coinciding with a triple gil sale at a major gil seller... goods sold by accounts belonging to that same RMT)

I've seen at least 5 people get in trouble for using Diaga on a group of mobs held for SMN burn parties. I've NEVER seen or heard of the actual burners getting bansticked.

That was before cleave parties. It's even explicitely allowed in the EULA. But now you can get in trouble if you PREVENT Diaga or similar gather-stealing practises.