yeah i see what you mean there. But there's also the case of the new mage experience, where they would not know where these pickables are and would have to explore the world litterally empty handed with no way to defend themselves, and if only the mage population is out looking for reageants it wont fix that one issue you were debating with yourself about, making mage kills feel rewarding, they would just go picking stuff naked with nothing on them
yeah we all are waiting on the new magic schools and all those reagents are the biggest chore to gather, and need other players to make, so yeah ECU wont be a thing much longer aside from discount spells and EQ for mounted
While new player experience is a thing to consider it should not dominate the entire dynamic and economy of the game in any regard. New players on mages will have to find a patch of calamine next to town via haven tutorial or whatever. Maybe the current reagent vendor will tell you. Hell, leave reagents on teh vendor but make them limited with slow recharge (this was done in legends of aria, similar to ultima online). I can't stress this enough but if this suggestions is considered, there should be more pick-able spots near / in the town making the resource "depletable" instead of abundant.
Exploring the world was never a bad thing. Having nothing to defend yourself would probably not be the problem if the patches get added near the towns as ALL the examples i gave are places (carrots / cabbage, rice, sea dew) that are currently safe. Also lets be honest, mages can never defend themselves anyway.
People / new players could pick pick-ables and sell on the broker for quick money. You could put up "tasks" for people to sell you reagents. There are so many angles how this will benefit everyone. Mages would end up having to put in a little more engagement for the same thing. Killing a mage gives you "pick-ables that you have to buy from players at slight inconvenience" would feel better than killing a mage that gives "vendor trash".