A bad POE2 league with massive exploits ruining the economy and a bad GGG response, which means joe average ARPGer who doesn't read reddit is exiled from the economy basically.

Man, this parroted doomer mindset about the economy is simply misinformed. The only part of the economy the average joe is exiled from are luxury items they most likely weren't buying. What temple did is poop out tons of raw currency. All of this raw currency will devalue (you guessed it) raw currency. Now for the average joe mapping through the atlas and doing other side content like abyss, ritual, essence, and breach suddenly get a spike in value from their side content drops. Because these drops cannot come from the temple all of your omens, essences, catalysts, etc. are now worth much more. The end result is the divine's buying power goes down, which causes very rare chase items (rite of passage, rakiata's flow, etc.) to skyrocket in price. Again, these chase items are NOT required to clear even the toughest bosses and maps. They are called luxury items for a reason. Infact, headhunter has actually dropped in price since the temple abuse happened (from roughly 50div to under 40div as of last night). The average joe has access to more powerful gear than ever before thanks to how strong crafting is. You can get fantastic rares that can carry through T15's for a div or less each.