Has the question of how many people have cleared T9 vs. obtained Novus ever been...

[skaterger]

-People can't clear T9 not only because of time, but also ability. So its not just a time issue. The monetary investment is compensation to get a fairly comparable weapon.
-Getting a high allagan weapon is subjected to rng dropping your weapon. Some will never see the loot they want even after clearing t9 for many weeks. Novus is more or less guaranteed once you finish the process, though there is also rng involved with melding
-Novus allows you to customize the stats and even exceeds the stat weight for an i110 weapon. It's more like a ilvl 112 or 113 weapon. Combine that with the fact that some HA weapons are horribly itemised (smn book I'm looking at you), the two weapons are fairly on par for some classes.

All in all, I think it's quite a balanced system.