I agree with the OP. I made it to level 7 pre-hotfix and stopped at that point because I could afford all the skillbooks and fights became trivial. Haven't killed a single merchant btw. Cleared the whole Fort Joy without buying a single skill and was playing on classic. Also didn't use buffing before a fight and never opened with a preemptive strike. Moreover I didn't even change companion starting classes.
I enjoyed plaing this patch more than I did any of the previous ones because the game finally felt challenging and I had to actually think about what I was doing. I get that this kind of scarcity is too much for most people to enjoy but Larian, please, do keep pre-hotfix prices on Tactician because it was an awesome challenge.
Actually I love the idea of different economy systems for different difficulties, because AI and the number of enemies clearly aren't the only things affecting difficulty.
