And my point is that Inno purposefully designed Mars differently in that regard. Looking to "update" those GBs with regards to their goods output (as the OP suggests) with Mars in mind amounts to wanting an Easy Button.
Given that refining goods was not the optimum way to go about it in the first place I wouldn't call an update to them an "Easy Button". I don't even know what that update should look like - I do think it's a reasonable complaint though from someone that wasn't exploiting the optimum strategies in the game to begin with that their treasured GBs should continue to do something useful.
"Regular" players will always have a use for unrefined goods from GBs - for refined goods production in each Age (except mars) & to a certain extent for tech tree/maps goods requirements (which need goods up to 3 Ages prior to current Age). While using goods buildings to produce goods is by no means the most efficient way to obtain current Age goods, a great many "regular" players do so to some degree. The introduction of refined vs unrefined goods concept beginning in ME was another deliberate Age-progression challenge by Inno.
You have far more confidence in the developers thinking things through than I do these days
Back in Modern Era they certainly were - it was becoming a thing that people were making all their goods from great buildings and goods buildings were being outdated as a result. Wanting to continue encouraging people to build balanced cities they nerfed great buildings to only producing the unrefined goods so you'd still need refined goods buildings - and they updated the great buildings to only produce unrefined so that they still served a use while goods buildings remained important. Fast forward to Future Era and they were no longer thinking through consequences and added the Arc which was the beginning of the end for 'building balanced cities' - what they've done in Mars does not hamper the new most efficient ways of making goods at all (churning out goods through Chateau boosted quests). All it does is outdate a use of great buildings by a 'regular' less efficient strategy. If 'unrefined' goods are losing meaning in Mars, then they ought to consider another transition like they did in ME to something still usable directly by the player - I don't know what that transition could be (and i suspect that's why such a transition hasn't happened) but there should be something. This is not an easy button. This is not for the most efficient strategy which honestly hasn't gave a crap about unrefined goods production for years now other than as goods to sell.
Of the only ~30% of all FoE players (referring to those using PC) with access to GvG, only a very small fraction of them play GvG. Additionally, GvG was designed with thought that FoE Ages were going to stop at FE. Inno then intentionally didn't change GvG to accommodate all the Ages that they afterwards did create - no new GvG maps (other than All Ages map). Thus, no need for later Ages goods beyond FE for GvG. Inno has recently stated they won't make any changes to GvG ever (except trying to fix few stability issues if possible). Given all that, Inno isn't going to change treasury goods GBs' outputs to accommodate GvGers. And GvGers will continue to stay in whatever Ages suits their guild best, quite likely never going beyond FE for most).
(Note: I mean no personal offense to all those GvGers, just discussing the facts of what's going on).
As for treasury goods GBs in general... well, the Age of Hyperleveling GBs does make the vast amount of treasury goods produced rather irrelevant. Far, far more is donated by those GBs than a guild could ever use beyond GvG needs. Perhaps some aspects of upcoming Guild Battlegrounds will change that - time will tell. If not, so be it.
I agree that GvGers are a tiny portion of the game - BUT they kept the goods market fluid because they always needed goods of varying ages in huge quantities. Arc was the first thing that broke that by enabling hyperlevelling while being a treasury building itself - it also enabled all the top players having a hyperlevelled Chateau which pretty much solved their need for their own age goods without trading. But the lack of AF+ maps was also a major factor as the top players who make the most goods were then making useless goods that noone wanted to trade. This then encouraged people to just camp FE or lower where their treasury buildings *did something* and rely on huge attack bonuses to help out on AA or to just ignore AA - and generally guilds wind up setup with arcs in all the ages they actually fight so they don't need to manually donate anything anymore.
At any rate, sum total of this is the changes in behavior these developments caused impacted the market of *everyone* in the game, not just the GvGers - as now almost noone trades anymore. Finally, they juiced up both event frequency and event reward power such that even if you're not a quester there's a good chance most of your goods are coming from event buildings, not goods buildings ; and homogenized neighborhoods so everyone in it is the same age - so now really almost noone trades anymore.
If you want a guide on how to destroy an in-game economy, Inno certainly has the credentials on that now!
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It's possible battlegrounds might change this. They've certainly acknowledged that it's a goal of theirs to make it so battlegrounds will soak up overstocked treasuries and eventually provide scarcity in goods again. But given that for the longest time they insisted that GE unlock costs was *enough* of a use for those ages in the treasury, I have my doubts they'll hit the mark needed. Even if it is successful, it's been YEARS that they've left the treasury mess and assorted economy flaws in place.
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Now for those last few people who still are running goods buildings, engage in trades, and kept a 'real' city that's not just plugged up with event and great buildings, they've invalidated the use of unrefined goods GBs. Did this really seem like the playstyle that needed nerfing and a 'new challenge'? Are THESE the players that are breaking the game?