Arfur (atys)
It makes sense that crafted items are worth more than the sum of the mats that go into them.
Well mats are always potentially useful, but crafted items aren't always useful. So it would make sense to me that crafted items that nobody wants would be worth less than the mats. If you are grind crafting, you are using the mats to increase your skill, so you are getting something out of it to make up for the decreased value.
In RL, people buy materials such as fabric from a store, craft some junky "crafts" that nobody wants, and fail to make a profit. It happens all the time. But at least they have fun and have a good experience doing it!
It seems like the big difference in this economy is not that it's necessarily harder to make money, but that you can no longer make lot's of money selling mass quantities of unwanted junk to NPC's.