Say what you want about how unappealing the old approaches may be, but in its core that's just what MMORPGs are about lol. They are about grinding up cheap RuneScape gold a character's degrees, exploring RuneScape world to acquire experience, and interact with the surroundings. That's what MMOs have always been around, even if they might not be the most played video game celebrity in this present day and age.
So, no, actually, I'd say that"basically" it's wrong to combine gathering and buyables. Standalone RuneScape skills are fine (e.g. agility) but they are usually utility RuneScape skills. Imagine if you could only throw money at runite rocks and double the speed at which you would usually obtain 99 mining. Would that be fine to most people? The closest equivalent to this is going Telos and buying keys with your gain to twist out a max cape... A quick look of this subreddit should tell you it's painfully evident how many gamers disagree with p2w-style MTX. Buying chronotes is not as egregious however, the ideas are almost indistinct.
The level differs, but the memory/energy relationship works almost exactly as the artifact/material relationship. You get the xp from memories/artifacts. You need energies/materials to become decent xp out of the memories/artifacts. You do not acquire sufficient energies/materials to cover all of your memories/artifacts, and therefore you have to buy energies/materials from other people to find maximum xp rates. Or, you can simply get energies/materials to sell to other people, or someplace in between.
Archaeology is not mining, and by the start it had been promoted as"a gathering and a artisan RuneScape skill in one." They put it on the amassing RuneScape skillcape but it's obviously NOT a gathering RuneScape skill like mining or woodcutting. It's not a amassing RuneScape ability, but it was never intended to be a pure gathering RuneScape ability, and, besides the amassing RuneScape skillcape, Jagex has described it as with a artisan part and a gathering part. It's not a (pure) amassing RuneScape ability, and that is okay. There is nothing wrong with Prayer or Herblore - there isn't anything wrong with Woodcutting or even Mining. Why is there something wrong with a RuneScape ability that lies in between? Look, what do you think of that Magic has charms?
About how he believes, the negative comments are a bit unbased. This man has been a leading player in RuneScape since its induction and its only fair he feels this particular way towards the so called"race" using the RuneScape ability because that's all he has been doing for the previous ten years of his RuneScape profession. If you have previously been rank greater or 10 for SEVERAL decades and spent in game times over 2000, you would honestly feel exactly the same manner. RuneScape has progressed in a way that feeds buyable quickness. His mind comes from a creation of old school runescape buy gold where xp speeds were 40k/hr and he thrived in it.