Guild Wars 2

If it does, wouldn’t it be counter productive to have any sort of magic find at all as it affects the chances of getting the junk items that are worth more than the uncommon mats and the ascended recipes?

Please understand my ignorance.

No, it doesn’t. (Or at least, it shouldn’t.)

There’s no evidence that Magic Find affects anything other than:

• Loot from foes.
• Loot from PvP boxes meant to be equivalent to loot from foes.
• Lost Bandit Chests in the Silverwastes.
• Specific other seasonal items that specifically state that they are affected by MF (notably: lunar envelopes).
• Heart of Thorns meta event participation containers.

The wiki article documents the official sources for what MF affects (and how).

If you’re still unsure, there’s a fair bit of potential evidence out there: several published sets of data on folks opening them (since the latest update to their drop tables). We know that the results are the same, within the margin of error due to less than infinite sample sizes.

And if you’re still really unsure, you can test it yourself: it’s easy enough to stockpile keys and boxes and open another 1,000 or more. (I’d be happy to help you compare results with existing data, if you want to go that route.)