Quote Originally Posted by BrianJ View Post
Durability exists as a gold sink.
Quote Originally Posted by Legion88 View Post
Gear durability is a simple Gil sink.
These statements would have carried some real weight in September of 2013. While repairs are still a gil sink by definition, they are probably not enough of one to have any real affect on the economy anymore.
When ARR launched, repairs were a worthy enough gil sink that there were threads complaining about the high costs of them. Patch notes from Sep 11th 2013 included :


-In instance dungeon “The Wanderer's Palace” and “Amdapor Keep”, we have increased the amount of AllaganCoins that can be obtained from a treasure chest.
-Reduced the amount of gil required for repair fees and materia removal as follows:

Equipment levels 1-10: 10 gil -> No Change
Equipment levels 11-20: 50 gil -> 30 gil
Equipment levels 21-30: 100 gil -> 60 gil
Equipment levels 31-40: 210 gil -> 120 gil
Equipment levels 41-40: 500 gil -> 200 gil

-Reduced the price of Dark Matter as follows:
Dark Matter G1: 5 gil -> 4 gil
Dark Matter G2: 30 gil -> 12 gil
Dark Matter G3: 70 gil -> 24 gil
Dark Matter G4: 150 gil -> 48 gil
Dark Matter G5: 350 gil -> 80 gil

People back then actually went out of their way way to open a chest in the hopes they'd get 1000 gil. Or use /return after the run was over to pick up any skipped coffers, even if it meant dying to get them. Also, Grade 6 Dark Matter costs 120 gil. Just thought I'd add that in there to compare to Grade 5 prices from launch.

Then in patch 2.1 SE started adding gil as a monster drop in dungeons for all the people who STILL couldn't afford to repair their gear. This is arguably where the majority of RMT gil may come from to this day, if you've ever noticed the 4 man BLM parties popping in and out of duties all day long.

TL : DR
Repairs used to be a decent gil sink. People whined about it, SE catered, and we're all worse off for it now.