Real money comes from gathering nodes, not from missions. Getting 100k+ creds/hours isn't negligible, considering you have a crafting proffession as well as another gathering proffession. This way, you'd only need to buy mission mats from the AH and still craft/sell your stuff and enjoy extra credits. On lucky illum runs i can make up to half a million credits per day (3+ hour grinds) without any risk of not selling my stuff and wasting mats.