When making the game, SE figured there would be bots, mostly from RMT. They also figured they would not be able to stop the bots, since no matter how hard you delete them, these idiots keep returning. Therefor, someone really smart figured they should build the economy based on the assumption that there would always be bots. Therefor they made high level recipes so that not only do you need a few high level mats, you also need a bunch of low level shards.

If it wasn't for bots, we'd have to either pay an insane price for shards, or mine them ourselves, which is so boring it's lethal. Item prices would be determined on how many shards you need, rather then what other ingredients go in it. Economy would be horror.

SE created an artificial hole in the economy for the bots to fill, so that they wouldn't be a risk to economy. Instead of having to delete the bots, or risking economy to be ruined, they just let them do their thing because economy is fine. I think it's a genious move.