This current system makes it seem as if it puts the player on the same playing field as RMT/ botters.

It makes it so the RMT/ bot cannot get the upper hand in item procuring, meaning that both legitimate and illegitimate players now get the same amount. This is fair in terms of item aquisition.

It isn't fair, however, that people should have to suffer sp/ xp reductions. As said by other people in this thread, DoW/H do not get this sort of fatigue, whereby the more you do something, the more you'll fail it, giving less sp/ xp.

I can see that it sort of makes sense theoretically, that when you fail something, you'll receive less of a reward for it. I do think, though, that people should be given the full amount of SP/XP considering they take the time to go through the mini-game.

If this isn't an acceptable proposition then in order to balance this perhaps the whole gathering system needs to be reworked...
I wouldn't know what to suggest though...