To be candid, the economy doesn't bother me that much. With greater diversity of making quanta, fewer people are mining so supply/demand... etc.
I am solo and primarily self sufficient. I buy ships, I make my quanta, I make the main things I need to make.
I keyed in on you comparing mining to the "its the most painful gaming experience ever made in the history of video-games," which is so radically over the top I wrote what I did. I mean... come on....
There isn't a single MMO in existence that does not have resource gathering as a key gaming element. It's how you get what you need to make what you need or want. Schematics are no different from recipes, rep, experience, etc.
So, that is why I keyed into your mining perspective.