Yeah, no argument there, the EVE economy feels a lot more solid than other videogame economies. But I don't think the surviving cargo thing was a required fact

Yeah, no argument there, the EVE economy feels a lot more solid than other videogame economies. But I don't think the surviving cargo thing was a required factor for the LP loop, it only sped up their initial gains. When they figured out how to manipulate the game's idea of prices upward, they basically were able to exploit infinite arbitrage that resulted from the bits of hardwired game logic that made up part of the market without being subject to/responding to market forces.