Current system is better imo.
Most of the clans are buying strat gold for 5:1 ratio (Including us !)
It gives clanless people a chance to do something useful in strategus .
It balances economy .
Rich clans give their cRPG money to clanless and/or new players.
Adding AI to economy always kills the multiplayer spirit i think.
to judge this, we would need to know how many players without faction, do engage in crpg or strat or both and how many of those engage here in the forum, i think for a lot of players without faction that is too much of a hustle!
We will see if that ratio(5:1) is still valid after the gold reset ;)
With a implemented exchange system, gold will be more rare as the the institute you exchange with is the "bank of chadziness" , with the forum exchange you have more inflation as gold is piling up somewhere.
Adding rules to economy grants stability, btw perhaps a bit more of those in the real world would have saved us some of the market crashes
PS:Well but if you are Kenzian economist or a capitalist in the purist form you can now give me crap of how oppressive a state only neglets our freedom while being big goverment ... bs...