Just because youre not out there getting it doesnt mean other people arent either. Thats what sets bums and deadbeats apart from the rest of the population.
You don*t get it really because you didn't got to see those periods I am talking about. It was always the case that opportunities would be there for those exploring more/risking more/putting more effort etc.
I am talking about baseline. Hides, wools, oils, the basic stuff. Regular L drops if those would exist (e.g. a looted line which to compete armatrix for example). For majority of items to have MU, there has to be demand, respectively a genuine need. Something like gambling to be done on tailoring, as it used to be, instead of explo. Nanocubes to not exist and all bps to use either mined either hunted loots.
Economically speaking, you'd be tempted to say maybe that would make no difference, if everybody have access to those loots then they would have no MU. And this is simply not true, this happened only in recent years.
Everything needs to be more expensive for everybody, heck ammo would need to be crafted too. And then, if the baseline loot would be, say, 110% while the basic costs would be 112% (so still a pressure, still demanding to break even), then for sure would be plenty of space for other opportunities too.
If you look at an average inventory after, say, 3k peds hunted on atrox, almost all of it is tt trash/shrap (which is not so bad, but is purely personal, there is no economic interaction about it).
In the scenario I am picturing above, that inventory would be, say, some average 107% or something, and I mean actual 107%, with orders and AH turnover enough to feed hundreds of participants.
The proportional effort between various participants, the proportional effort between ul+big rings vs regular (L) would still be very different etc,
But that 7% difference would make a world of difference in regards to the economic systems themselves.