The drop rates did need an increase on Diremite Webs and Fleece, but I think perhaps they overdid it. I think I got 9 webs once. As a Weaver? Yay! As a farmer? Well, crap! Tam-tara and Aurum Vale drops webs like candy too.

LOL, Se's answer is to put more useless stuff into the economy and expect things to get better... Cause people that buy housing are going to go to the market board to get stuff... They have their whole fc to make stuff, not to mention they will probably have an npc selling stuff soon anyways...
I think that's what they expected to happen. They did add a lot of new recipes, mostly furniture, to use some more of the mats that were flooding the market. But then they shot themselves in the foot and made the houses so expensive that smart FCs are also leveling crafting classes on the side (whose XP was also boosted) so that they can mitigate the costs. It was one of those "made sense on paper" kinda things.