As a habitual trader and supporter of RP, I'm in complete agreement.
If I had my way, the entire commodities schedule would get slowly and thoughtfully reworked with regards to the obvious economic strengths and weaknesses of the houses. For example, Rheinland is a manufacturing powerhouse whose capacity outstrips it's resources, while Bretonia has a good position to nearly corner the market on the mineral and metals needed for Rheinland's industry. Bretonia has a lot of those resources, but only minimal smelting and other primary resource preparatory capacity. Kusari, meanwhile, has a large population and insufficient food production. (hence the importation of Synth paste and the Farmer's opposition to it) All the other houses have some ability to export foodstuffs, but need the farming machinery from Rheinland. Kusari also has a large electronics and research industry but need the mineral resources of the nearby Taus, explaining their aggression in that arena. Etc, etc.
If the commodities were to be arrayed in a logical progression around pre-thought-out economics like these, pretty much all trading would have some inherent RP value. This also gives the concept of economic embargoes and blockades some teeth once everyone could have such regional import & export necessities in mind.
I guess my point is that the commodities and their trade could, with some thought, be made into an asset and integral part of the Mod's RP. And if the commodities were linearized to some degree along those lines and the pricing appropriate, running "RP valuable" goods could be made profitable as well. Not to mention that perhaps the worst (if not all) of the power-trading routes could be eliminated.
