Mining makes negative money, I'm sure a lot of other things do too. 12 hours of Agris and only 1.7bil worth of Pure Mythril Crystal. 
We need an increase in price for these end game mats that have an extremely limited use.

FIrst off, welcome to the forums. Im glad to see new faces around here. 

Secondly, and sadly... yes... there is a lot of content in the BDO world that is dead. Mythril and such processing materials are among the dead content. 

It was born out of a long lost development team that designed the first world structure in BDO. They dreamed up the worker system and affiliated nodes, drew new areas of the map and breathed life into the CP mechanic. 

They maticulously designed Calpheon and poured their heart and soul into the city. They did this for all the content they made. They then did Mediah, and then Valencia... it was a glorious time...

Then they were all fired. And what remained of their masterwork was taken on by new rulers in the mosaic that is BDO as you see it today. Unfortunately, the strong world building content that was the materials array, worker empire, and CP mechanics- were all forgotten in the new visions held by the new rulers. 

Chapter by chapter the new BDO world was developed and the cities, got weirder and weirder. The increasing strangeness also ushered in a new generation of astrangement from the original core concepts to the game, mostly because they were misunderstood and disliked. 

So now we have cities with less of the ROBUST MAJESTIC content, less habitable houses, less node varieties... just less everything. CP systems and worker empire developments were abandoned, as they were left behind in the economic road.

The heart of BDO died the day crafting died.

Back in 2015 to 2017 BDO was breathtaking as it went from and crawl to a sprint, man... you shoulda been there to see it. A fond memory. 

Wowzas, a very eloquent take! But oof... Really sucks the joy right out of the game doesn't it?

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you whole-heartedly - it's disheartening watching the quality of this game's incredible worldbuilding decline to such a state. But if we want to keep seeing new faces around here maybe this isn't the best way to go about it? x)

Also, out of genuine curiosity... Is the original dev team actually gone? I don't know much about PA's history.

It kinda makes sense that some attachment to the past has been severed, as they're continually bleeding this game dry of anything that will have it last ad aeternum.  They seem to be falling into that powercreep trap that a lot of games fell into over time.  They introduce the lastest, coolest thing, that everyone has to have, and try to release outfits and othersuch things that will assuredly have people spend their wallets out.  I must admit, that I do monetarrily support this game, so I'm aiding and abetting.  They try to get us with the "oooh, shiny", hoping that we don't notice that the game is actually dying a slow, painful death.  I guess some of these things are needed for all those players who have maxed out their characters and such, but, man, l just don't feel the charm that I did when I first played.  Everything seemed to have value and merit, but slowly, overtime, powercreep, inflation and efficiency have bled all things worthwhile from this game.  

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the current MO seems to be: Jump in this game, get to top-tier ASAP, so you can beat other players senseless in some Arena somewhere!  You can only be cool and complete if you've smashed another player's face in, and the whole world is there to acknowledge it!

I like playing this game for the quests, immersion, and finding value tucked away in the nooks and crannies of this once beautiful world.  But, there's no reason to go to most places in this world, anymore.  You can't do anything there.  You can't craft meaningful gear: just make Tuvala!  Might as well go find a grind spot and join the herd.  That's why we're supposed to play, right?

Peace

I think your analysis is spot on, but, in all fairness, that's always been the MO in this game. I was around back at launch in 2016 and unfortunately suffered through the immediate trap of min-maxing that everyone fell into - log on, grind desperately for 6-7 hours to squeeze in 2-3%, try to stomp out anyone that showed up to contest your spot (which was literally only susans at the time), rinse, repeat. Gear was almost secondary in focus - as PRI-PEN hadn't even been released yet, everything just went up to +15 - so the main goal was to rank by level.

Those were some wild times, when being level 53 or 54 was an absolute flex x) And unfortunately lifeskills were almost entirely pointless, I think cooking and training were the only two mildly useful skills because everyone wanted the best buffs and the fastest get-away horse. So either you stayed for the power trip or - you stayed for the glimmer of hope that the beautiful world they built would one day mean something. The amity game, the knowledge system, town infrastructure and worker empires, node investment - all of these beloved worldbuilding mechanics were there from the start but ended up being completely overshadowed by the game's competitive scene, so they were quickly left behind.

However, if I was to compare this game's early beginnings to the here-and-now? I would be remiss to say that it hasn't improved dramatically. Lifeskills were absolutely given new life. Even if they never got around to actually finishing the Mastery system, at least they were given the purpose that they completely lacked at launch. The world has been continuously expanded upon, with brand new areas, new ecosystems with their own environmental mechanics, an entire ocean, and new storylines to flesh out an ever-expanding series of lore. Even if they will never fully reach the levels of quality and mystique captured in the first few regions, at least they put in some amount of effort to retain the unique identity of each region, which can always be polished and expanded upon later. We as the players just need to speak out and make sure PA knows what matters to us most at this point in the game's life cycle - which I think many of us can say, pretty unanimously, is the world itself.

what rotation and mastery were u gathering, for data's sake

lol yep. The few use cases end-game and difficulty of obtaining it make it so that getting a PO is next to impossible. But at least it's not terribly hard to get them. Silver / hour shouldn't be how we view the game but it's side effect of comparing things we do. If PA would tell us "okay, we will spend the next 3 months making lifeskilling great again" I'd be giddy and excited for it. BDO in 2015 / 2016 was so different when it came to lifeskills, it had meaning to it and while it kind of still does today, it's not comparable. I think BDO back then felt more like the joy you would get doing lifeskills in Ultima Online. Okay, my age is showing but still, Make Lifeskilling Great Again! :P

Yeah, I don't want to have to measure my success and pleasure from this game according to silver per hour.  It would be very nice if we were able to craft useful items, instead of just having to luckily loot something from a corpse somewhere.  Most green and blue grade gear has no point, unless you're working on some extreme build.  Why can't there be a wider variety of items?  Let us craft gear that offers great bonuses vs. specific targets?  They do, in a sense, but only against a few different groups, and even then, they're not that amazing.  Let us build gear and accessories that can offer great AP/DP advantages against worshippers of Kzarka, Ahibs, denizens of Eternal Winter, desert dwellers, swamp creatures, etc.....

If there's countless ways to play the game, we don't have to fall into a powercreep trap.  We could give crafters a reason to play.  Everything doesn't have to be: get boss gear, then throw that away for blackstar, which bows to deadgod and godr-ayed.  Sure, that is end-game, but can we not enjoy the ride as we go?  Can we not have access to a myriad of ways to get some kind of narrow advantage?  Yeah, it might build marketplace clutter, but I would rather deal with a mind-blowing variety vs. mind-numbing efficiency.

Efficiency is for robots.

I am a human being who wants to enjoy the ride.

Pace!