THIS!!! x10, don't get why anyone even bothers playing the new cRPG, way too much of a grind with upkeep.
I'm only gen 3, before I retired my first time I had all the equipment that I wanted for heavy lancing from a courser. The most I ever had was 20k, if I ever dropped down under 5k I'd go infantry until I had about 10k and then jump back on my courser with heavy lance, scimitar, knightly heater shield, heraldic mail, mail chausses, and mail gauntlets.
It's not hard to "upkeep" your equipment, especially after you retire once (I made 100k and still was able to get the heirloomed item I would have loomed anyways). And I imagine most of the people bitching have retired 10+ times and have basically unlimited money.