Also there is a added benefit of people joining in more pvp since now those who don't have a lot of money to throw into a game can have a chance not getting one shotted. More people willing to take risks. More people out on the ocean. More people doing DS pvp (which is pretty fun in a large groups), it is win-win for a lot of people.
Let's not exaggertate here. More people left over the changes in trade and farming around 3.5 where huge swaths of land opened up almost overnight in places like windscour and Arcum iris. The indifference of the trion staff towards the bots and cheaters. Sometimes the GMs like Khroloan helped the cheaters by reversing their bans and gave certain guilds important information early on while remaining tight lipped about that same information on the live streams. More people left over things like that then the Hiram gear. Then too I have seen people leave when the Hasla weapons became obsolete in favor of obsidian. Irregardless people come and go all of the time for various reasons. The crafted gear is still going to be there. The Hiram gear is just going to give those who don't have a lot of money a chance at being competitive.
Not sure if you played live at 4.5 or are you assuming from the changelog but the issue is not hiram per se but the fact there is no need for anything else but hiram in 4.5+ getting worse incrementally from there, hence 4.0 made crafting gear really hard then 4.5 made it useless outside filling up some niche market for whales erenor's feed which in consequence killed most farm markets(after all, no one need to craft) which in return killed most of the alchemy profession and so on and so forth.
There is nothing wrong with Hiram itself except that on Trion servers it was heavily monetized. Just like there's nothing wrong with Erenor gear, the stats make sense with the progression of the game, especially with how much money and work goes into it. New gear systems shouldn't be nerfed to bring attention to older ones. Buff the old ones if players need more choices.
Obsidian can not be buffed, if obsidian is buffed it will go back to being BiS regardless of any other armor. Obsidian from the get go was a design mistake that I'm pretty sure they intend to eventually phase out as patches continue (XL).
I don't want Obsidian buffed in stats I mean. And buffed wasn't the right word. I'm tired. Hiram, Erenor, and eventually the new library/mistsong armor system are the future, but if people are so hellbent on keeping their obsidian system, sure let them keep it. I meant more as in find a way to buff the crafting system to keep crafting viable. Obsidian in a way didn't do much for crafting either, so I'm confused why that was so well received originally and people still have a death grip on theirs going into 4.5.
Obsidian is the cheapest and the most insane amount of effective stats you can get from a single piece per slot thats why people love it.
The kraken ink sacs are pretty much controlled by your guild. I would not say the cheapest
The farm markets are already dead and that is not a guess. Try selling wheat, coral or roses. Outside of a few things, trying to sell items that used to sell quickly takes a LOOONNNNGGGG time, that too is not a guess. The amount crafted gear on the AH has dropped. You say "no need for anything else but hiram in 4.5+" yeah, so what? Right now it is Erenor it the best gear and before that it was Ayanad. T2 eneror is something they have for the whales, good for them and nothing is stopping them from getting hiram gear if they wanted. On live they got rid of PN and castles. The castle seiges are now an event that anyone can join and benefit from. The red dragon, titan wing are events that are no longer controlled by one or two guilds but events where anyone can join those too. That is not a guess either. On live they made a effort to bring a balance to keep people playing who are not pay to win and at the same time, keep those that are.
Scraps mostly aren't a thing because more and more people have unlocked HoA, which generates a crapload of fully complete scrolls. On top of this, the twice a year titan event also nukes the market as well (halves scroll prices every time it comes out almost).
Man how out of touch are you? Kraken ink sacks last I saw one sell on the AH for 800g. They are cheap af now, PN has not Controlled the Ink sack market since the % drop changes many months ago. Look at all the mats to T6 Obi gear and the most I have seen is Vyrava's Inferno 3-4k and most can farm the scrapes needed in a hour or so in reedwind. Find a few friends and summon Vyrava = free mat ez game. Obi is very cheap
The only obsidian recipes which require ink sacs now are t6 boots for cloth/leather/plate, ink sacs hardly have any form of influence on the overall cost of obsidian items generally speaking, on top of this, they're less than 1k gold...
Add in all of the RNG failure and cost of regrades, plus charms and scrolls. is not that cheap.
if you are regrading your own obsidian as a noob player, that is your first mistake. you can purchase low tier epic pieces for less than 10k each which is absurdly cheap when considering how easy it is to make gold with just a little bit of effort and 12-15k labor a day.
This narrative to justify the asshole price control on ink-sacs is hilarious.