There doesn't seem to be any valid reason for this, especially since it dramatically hinders the regular players and to a much lesser extent impacts the bots and RMT.

Thus, the bots and RMT prevention theory doesn't work.
Honestly, I'd just get rid rid of these damned shards if the reason is bots/RMT.

Furthermore, the devs should never implement something at the expense of the regular players' gameplay. Like many have said before, shards are such a huge limiting factor for crafting, it's just insane the amount of time we have to put into farming them.

The base shard yield should be tripled (3 shards per hit) with 5 shards yielded using the elemental buff.

I don't think people are playing this game for its "shards farming simulator".