you can offset the "loss" of your initial donation like nothing and start profiting from it immediately, even on a single transaction with just a handful of items.
Why is that a bad thing? Loot less, play more!
Because it's gimmicky.
Sure, it's convenient for the player, but not everything that's convenient is better for the game.
If I understand your point here, it’s that it would be more convenient for players if all enemies had only 1 hp, but it would make the game way worse.
I agree that obstacles are good when they’re in the service of fun. But nothing about the inventory system is fun; I’ll take any ounce of convenience I can get.
In this case this "trick" actively encourages the leverage of a cheap exploit for profit, while also making the other alternate trading system currently included as a "viable option" in the game intrinsically worse in comparison.
Yeah, the trade system works weirdly with approval compared to the barter system. I tried using trade for a while, and the only time approval goes up is if you run the vendor out of gold. Having both trade and barter is a mess.
No merchant would ever give you discounts piling up in the THOUSANDS because even if you were complete strangers minutes before, you introduced yourself giving a wink and putting a fifty dollars bill in their hand.
I’ve got no good answer there. It sort of makes more sense under the trade system, where you need to sell them over a thousand gold’s worth of junk in order to start making headway in their approval. If someone gave me a grand’s worth of great deals and then a free leather armor, I’d give them a juicy rebate the next time around.
