My wife and I average around 3.5 items per favor. We ran 40+ favors this weekend between the two of us, to get the mats for craft sixteen (8 each) il170 crafting/gathering accessories for ourselves. Not bad at all, really.

Certainly a lot better than it was before they tripled the amount of mats you got.

TL;DR: I don't mind the favor system at all. It's better than at launch, and it doesn't stop us from doing what we want.