Materia System

[Peregrine]

Isn't it crafters' goal to make money? That's the real reason most people craft, also if you're worried that crafters will have too much money, there just needs to be a gil sink for them. Also if I feel like someone is charging too much, I'll just go to another crafter, there's always someone willing to sell their services for less.

It's industry-wide imbalance. Consider crafters, gatherers, and battlers to be three entities-three corporations.
One corporation gets to charge the others twice for their product. Once then each of the other two wishes to start making their products, and then again when these two have to finish their final products.

That one corporation will own the other two within the end of the fiscal year. So will crafters own gatherers and battlers, as a total entity. Taken as a unit, you can't simply go to another crafter. That crafter inherently benefits from his trade's collective advantage over your trade.

It's about global market balance, not individual observations.