Not an official, but I can confirm this has worked like this for a loooong time. (at least 5 years)
Back when the game was less powercrept and people actually made goods buildings, there was routinely a surplus of paper because it took less space and yet people expected you to treat all goods of an age as equal in trade so certain folks would mass paper production and I'd wind up with a huge stockpile of it clearing trades for guildmates and then try to clear it out for literally anything else. I'd make 2000 paper for 1000 whatever trades.
Agree. It's been at these levels for at least as long as you mentioned, if not longer. If they're at this level now, it's "status quo" for max trading.
I've talked about this before and will repeat: The game was designed initially with a balance on all fronts.... the 10 FP well, the 100 daily collect limit, etc. You all remember when a SoK was a POWERFUL building, and winning TERRACE FARM was as if you died and went to heaven.
But the "fiddling" going in with as the game grows keeps it out of balance. People back "then" made 200 FP a day in a collection and it was A LOT. Goods were used modestly, because there was a small negotiation "menu" for spending them.
But with the advent of huge event buildings, SC, HC, BG.... more, bigger, doubling, and the ravenous needs of the modern game (mostly for goods) to fund GbG... other things in the game that were in balance to the humble game beginnings - are not any longer.
SCALABILITY is important in any game, be it 5 or now 10 years old. FoE is missing infrastructure scaling, both strategic and tactical. It could use a dose of that with a review on things that are severely out of balance.
Koyaanisqatsi <--- 1982 film - Hopi Indian word meaning “
life out of balance.”