I find it funny they acknowledge that trees dying randomly can be frustrating but still decided to use that for material caches for archeology.
Also rip necklace prices...they been on the uptick since the last porter event. Overall this would've been a good opportunity to get rid of jewelry from bird nests and just add ore spirits/salvage. Crafted goods should actually be crafted, if members don't want to make them then let f2p do it.
I don't think the existence of one thing invalidates the other, it's not so binary good or bad. Each skill having it's own differences and being quirky in their own way is good.
You also have to consider core node vs. a not-so-core node, you could interact perfectly fine with all of Arch 1-120 without ever touching a material cache but not the same for WC's trees.