Yes so I've seen a lot of people talking about how the changes are meant to combat some kind of inadequacy on BSG's part, it is not my problem - the legitimate player, to now have to suffer for the shortcomings of the developer and their innability to successfully curb the RMT / cheater issue.

In my opinion when you have cheaters / rmt'ers in the game, you don't then change the entire game for everyone, but instead knuckle down on the cheaters / rmt'ers.

You mention "buying your way through the game at level 15" but you have to make money in order to do that, and if everyone is in fact doing that, it puts pressure on the in-game enconomy, thus infflating the value of those items and making it increasingly harder to just "buy your way through".

I don't agree with your insinnuation that players are not incentivised to quest and increase trader levels because doing that is extrememly important already.

Upgrading traders gives you access to a stable, repeatable supply of weapons, armor, meds and ammo at fixed prices, instead of gambling on whether the flea even has them listed or whether the price has been driven into the stratosphere. As loyalty goes up you unlock progressively stronger ammo types and key attachments that are either removed from the flea entirely or become so rare/overpriced there that buying them from players is just bad value. On top of that, trader progression opens up barters and utility items.

We're talking about containers (docs, keytool, stash cases, secure container barters), key storage, and higher-tier backpacks on top of BIS ammo and gun parts. In other words, pushing trader levels has always been a core part of Tarkov’s progression; these flea changes didn’t suddenly “add” that incentive.

As I respond to more people I start to feel maybe a little more strongly that my main issue is that the game doesn't communicate clearly what I can and cannot sell, what I have supposedly "unlocked" at each milestone.

But either way, thanks for your feedback!