I have two responses:
1- Gold gained from trading looms is nothing compared to gold gained by selling loompoints. If the point was to prevent people from wearing whatever they want it completely fails. Even if I sold a loompoint for 300k I could wear pretty much whatever I wanted the entire gen and still have gold leftover.
2- Gear balance based on upkeep became trivial as soon as the marketplace came into existence. I don't know why there is a push to try to balance based on repairs anymore, there is too great a disparity between the haves and the have nots that anything that is implemented to hurt the 'haves' will completely fuck over the 'have nots', and anything designed to be gentle to the 'have nots' will be completely trivial to the 'haves'. Honestly it would be best if the devs simply dropped any hopes to balance based on repair cost... it was a bad system from the start tbh.
Why is there a war on the rich anyways? Why exactly is it so bad that there is a lot of gold in the system? It's not like the poorer players are hurt by the rich having a lot of money, if anything more money in the system is GOOD for newer players to get over that original gold barrier.
Then let me respond:
1- You are right. I personally have 3 mw items and over 1 million gold; and planning to go above level 30 as a horse archer. Since, I won't retire anymore I won't have any more loompoints to sell. So, I was trying to make money with trading. Because I know my gold will slowly diminish and I am looking ways to prevent this being happen. Since this might force me to use cheaper equipment from time to time (which will hardly happen still) I can see why devs want to put this system. Cutting the way of making easy money or encouraging people to retire to be able to wear expensive shit. As easily realized, it's far from being useful. But again, let me repeat myself we are not seeing the full picture we will have in the future. The devs said this is just a beginning, and more "cuts" will come (or am I seeing hallucinations?)
2-Can't agree more. As I have explained (what you all knew already), the current is still not fully effective to balance things out. Actually trying to make balance with the gold is fully effective. Millionaires are still have enough money to do what they want, it just becomes harder and harder for the low classes of calradia. But, let's not forget repairs and trade cuts actually do have some results in terms of statistics. Some people were forced to plan what gear should be using, while some older players remained untouched. Meaning that in a battle 30vs30, there won't be 20 knights per team, but only 3-4 ones. Meaning that, it was "macro" not "micro". After all, both teams do have same chance to win in principle (without a banner balance of course). Which is something I like that it was rewarding older, experienced and clever players. I know many people will not agree but I think, "macro" balance is better than "micro" balance. After all, it is possible to gain the upper hand in 1v1 but not in 30v30 (at least in principle).