I dunno... I just feel like people have this weird idea that there is some sort of danger of the game becoming easier when almost everything in the environment is brutally unforgiving.
My argument (balance) is the opposite. You conclude by talking about high levels succeeding. That's the point of balance.
I don't think anyone would disagree with these two statements:
1) POTM is intensely hard for truly new players with truly new, low-level PCs.
2) At some point, experienced, high-level players are no longer challenged by the server itself. Although a few pockets of content may be undoable (for example, Ooze City, or so I'm told), they know to avoid those places. Otherwise, they have beaten the game. What keeps them coming back is interactions with other players and DMs.
For extremely high level PCs played by experienced players, the DMs have quite the difficulty in coming up with encounters that are balanced and challenging. They must control the number of PCs in attendance because crafting an encounter for three or four 16+ levels is a different beast than eight 16+ levels.
I am not arguing at all that herbalism makes the server too easy. What I'm saying is it furthers imbalances toward players who have played and play more and also tips the balance more toward those who do it versus those who do not.
On that point, if herbalism becomes so good it is a no-brainer essential, then those who have the time to invest in it are favored over those who don't or would rather spend their time doing something else.
And if it is "controlled" by putting herbs in difficult content areas, then it increases the disparity between powerful PCs and those who aren't as strong.
In an earlier post I quoted Soren extensively on why elements like scrolls and potions are bad for the server's goal of shared narratives, so I won't repeat him again and thus myself. But I, at least, am not arguing herbalism makes the server too easy. What inevitably happens is, to compensate, the server is actually made harder and harder...for
new people.
Herbalism was plenty strong before, and now it is much more difficult to learn as a new player/PC, but also a way for someone playing in relative isolation to leverage extensive play time toward greater power. That is the hallmark of the kind of play POTM has historically discouraged. Consequently, I think the changes have been largely detrimental to the server's unique and fragile ecosystem.