The fundamental problem with hunts

[giantslayer]

By nerfing the reward value of hunts, such as removing sands or making them take impossibly long to get - you will stratify players into an "in group" that exploited the system and now gets to play, and an "out group" that didn't, and now faces pandemic exclusion from game content because their characters are just plain worse.

You brought up a lot of great points that I had not considered. Ultimately, for hunts to function as intended, their reward level must be equal to or lower than other content. Raising rewards for other stuff will do that and also reduce or prevent that stratification. I think a comprehensive solution is to do both: reduce rewards of hunts and raise rewards / ease limits on other content. It shouldn't be as easy as hunts made it, but easier than it used to be, now that the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, with i110 equipment from hunts.