Leves are a constant source of 'New Money' ...so the argument that only new players will add gil back into the economy is wrong.
You also get gold rewards (albeit small) from other in-game tasks.

So the game DOES generate gil.

That said: You can't expect to be in a 'rush to cap' AND expect to be making money hand over fist. It's one or the other. Maybe if you can't afford the endgame repairs, that's the game's way of telling you 'hey, you're not quite ready for this'. If you can't figure out how to make 5-10K a day personally in this game (to support your gear repair costs), you are not trying hard enough.