Prior to Retainer Ventures, I remember Aldgoat Skins being a bottlenecking item. They did not drop nearly enough, and people were paying quite a bit for the things, especially HQ.

Bottlenecks are not new. They went WAY overboard on bottlenecks with 3.00 and 3.05, I doubt anyone can rationally dispute that. But yes, there is at least one example that I can think of off the top of my head where the bottleneck was rather bad. Of course, they've extended that bottleneck to most things this time around, not just one (or two?) types of leather.