Agreed... although even with Biochem people are just overpriced. Some people are even asking for more than the regular vendors, I've even seen almost double.

My toon, companions and guildmates seem to be well equiped and modded up. I sell a my purple mods pretty quick by just dropping the asking price 1k and undercutting the competition, most of my purples don't last the day that way. I think it's silly when people are asking 5-7k for a mat on an item that will only sell for 3k and even more silly when someone actually purchases them. People are just asking way to much for materials so I've selected my crew skills to ensure I find my own. When looking for mats specifically for items to sell, I typically go the tier below, it's easier to find rare mats (so it seems, and make sure you send the companion with the highest bonus on the highest output missions). If someone specifically wants me to craft a item, I'll have them either quest or purchase the mat for me. My cash flow mostly comes from questing, the second I stop to focus on crafting my cash reserves will dry up quickly. I honestly don't think the crafting was to create some big money makers like people are hoping. Get your guild members to have craft skills that complement each other, have a armstech, armortech, etc... keep on trading with each other and there should be no reason you'll need to worry about gear. (My 35 BH is typically better equiped than most and I've completed just a handful of heroics and flashpoints.) For the amount of time people waste farming flashpoints for gear, I can level my toon up, use commendations for needed items and mods (that I cannot produce) and by the time gear needs to be upgraded, I've already created the needed mods to do so.

From an aesthetic point of view, I completely agree. BW might be worried about it being too similar with the trooper.

It sounds like they are closing a lot of tickets without actually resolving the problem. Bioware seems to be lacking in their communication with consumers.