I agree with OP, more gold or up consumable drops or make the merchants pay more than one gold piece for things found. Gold accumulation is problematic. The only time I've had much surplus recently was after an intense period of events. It got spent on potions to replace what was used and to go on quests and a couple of magic bags for quality of life. Those potions did not last long.
Before that one short period my character was skint and now, my character is skint (less so today admittedly, because he died and got to redo a load of 4-6 quests). I don't always have time or inclination to do the squire courier quest every reset.
The quests (especially 7-10) can bleed you dry if you fight close quarters without a good Wizard buffing you. Granted one or two have got potion drops at the end, which helps. But it's seems very rare for to come away with a profit. That is often the point where backwards leveling begins for my characters.
Yes, like Bowser said, money can be earned from other sources, but with a small player base not many people want to buy surplus loot from you, because half of them were there when you found it. Money in form of payment for services is nice, but again rarely lasts long. For example, the money Grell was paid to collect things during an event, bought him two potions to go on the event, which were consumed in the first five minutes.
Tl;dr: Events, sometimes break even, occasional profit. Quests, rarely break even, unfortunately often not worth it after level 7 (with certain exceptions).
