Last thing the world needs is to increase a player's financial burden in a videogame.

[redheadturk]

You seem to be missing the point. Even in this "buyers market" prices, and profits are far higher now than during the "manufacturers market"

What market force do you think might have contributed heavily to that?

On the contrary, aside from the first two or three weeks after a patch drops with new gear recipes, prices on average have been lower and they honestly should be. It used to be you could pay the same for a full set of crafted gear as you did for a medium house which IMHO is pretty ridiculous.

Edited to add: as someone who has played since the HW patch cycle, I know well how expensive crafted once was, having had to scramble to get my item level high enough just to continue with the patch story.