I was doing the same thing, crafting and then RE'ing immediately, over and over to get into nice spiffy purples. It worked just fine. I'd get my first blue RE in 1-4 tries, and then a purple in 1-4 tries, but afterwards it seemed like my luck wasn't as good for getting blues and purples again from that same item. I wanted the critical not the overload I'd say to myself. But y'all look fabulous now! No need to chase this RE rainbow, is how my armour would reply if it was sentient. Someday. Someday.

Overcharging is what ruins the economy. Buyers want competitive low prices. You fail if you set your prices too high. Pretty simple...

I search for the other postings of the item and undercut them. It is easy because most sellers on the GTN set their prices embarrasingly high.

Since you are questing and looting as well, there is no imbalance. I'm not sure why you people feel the find some way of feeling elite and better than other players. No chance is necessary, just play the GTN smarter.

You can craft a schematic to purple. Green goes to one of three Blues Critical, Overload, or something else. From there, blue goes to one of five purple variations. Example: Tempest Critical Bla blah chest plate [superior]

I suspect orange armour will dominate the end game players who will have the resources to get the best mods and the desire to have a visually particular look. You can function with orange armour and mods at lower levels but more upkeep and cost is required. I did so for awhle, and will do so again, but in between great orange pieces that drop or I craft, I craft myself some RE'd purple schematics and so far they are vastly better.

It would increase diversity but would cost a lot of billable dev hours. It would be a lot of work. Also, you shouldn't laugh at people. That makes you look bad.

Aluminum is less common than Desh and Silica but you can get them running Grade 1 Scavenging Metal smissions, buying them at a reasonable price from GTN, and scavenging the bodies of droids. Droids that drop aluminum are especially popular in the Works on Dromund Kaas.

It is a bug. Press "I" on the keyboard instead of clicking at the top of the screen and it should return.

That hasn't been my experience at all. What I have crafted is far superior to the Black Talon drops and the vendors have the lowest quality stuff out there. I wasn't able to find better stuff in GTN. I am teh awesome for crafting.

The OP is referring to being able to RE some drop armour and not all drop armour. I believe this is an oversight and will be cleared up over future patches.

I've heard reports that typing "I" instead of clicking at the top will bring it back.

Buy the recipe. Craft it and RE the crafted item over and over and soon you'll have improved recipes. Then Craft/RE the improved recipe over and over and you'll have even better recipes. I went from base trainer green recipe to ultra sweet purple recipe with RE in about 30 minutes.

The RE guide doesn't seem to specify higher than purple. I've created what I think is the highest I can go, and I'm only lvl 18. It doesn't take long, maybe 30 minutes of RE/crafting back and forth. Orange is exclusively the realm of Underworld Trading. For the first 100 levels I received nothing, now I receive a schematic (not always useful) every few missions.

The link Ratito provided is the best explanation of RE. After reading it I RE/Crafted my way into several Superior Prefix 2 armours. example: Tempest Critical bla bla armour (superior) The entire process took less than 30 minutes.