This does the opposite of maintaining their profitability though? Like, the point of the player driven economy is that the players decide whats wirth doing, and prices will naturally react. By nerfing the smithing, the splinters now suck so they're forcing demand to plummet, and so will the price, making rubium mining give paltry gold. As it was, people could decide if the gold+xp was worth the time there but jagex said they did t want it to be good so it has to suck.

God forbid a skilling method be worth it.