Your own future returns, and that of $5 and girts will certainly have an impact on the value of these items, of that I am sure. It will be interesting to see how you guys fare when evolving from loot 1.0 to 2.0.
What I liked, previously, about this game was MA said the loot mechanism had remained the same since the beginning of the game and never would be changed: except for some minor tweaks. Maybe this has remained so, but how they have worded 2.0 it seems more than a tweak and a complete overall. Time will tell in that regard, but it makes me nervous as a previous investor in gear and probably future investor. I like stability when putting $10k+ into a virtual world / currency like I have in the past.
I over-simplified by saying focus blow items produce more loot, but I do think most players viewed focus blow item as providing more damage, therefore cheaper kills, and hence more loot as an overall percentage related to costs. If their impact has been lessened in this regard their value, you would expect, can only go one way.