I agree, the point you are delivering is very different, but I did want to point out that, OEMs and RPMs are getting inflated because of the same root of problems that have lead story mode operations to this state that they are currently in. Of course, the Legendary Augments are not that significant in stats, but they were something only obtainable through harder content meaning they were part of the reward table. Back in the launch of the expansion the only reason people outside raiding communities and teams would do MM or NiM content was for them to obtain 330 gear as for all the other methods of gearing was capped and 326 for PvE and 328 for PvP so the reward table for NiM and MM content was the sole reason people would even consider doing NiM content however unsignificant it was (Farming of Nefra and Dash on NiM). But now every content except for R-4 Anomaly VM provides an easy way of obtaining 336 gear that are little to no different in stats so why would a new player even consider doing harder content while they can just do veteran mode flashpoints and obtain 336 gears with the same stats? There is no longer any point for the player base to do harder content other than collecting achievements and having fun learning and beating the hard content with their friends or team.

I would love to see developers actually respond to this thread. this is a very important aspect of the game that needs more attention. following this argument of Story Mode Ops being so easy, they have made the mats used to craft legendary augments (OEMs and RPMs) very inflated and mostly worthless. Legendary augments have always been the high tier items used on Master Mode content and those same Master Mode (Nightmare Mode at the time) content was the only way to obtain them and same with RPMs being the reward of higher level PVP content. The Legendary Augments were the high tier items for high tier content but now they are so easily obtained through spamming Story Mode Operations that they have become the norm of making credits over the expansion and there is little no reason other than achievements and fun to do harder content right now.