I have a hard time believing that anet would add crafted armor in to the game, with a requirement for an item that isn’t able to be acquired naturally, somewhere within the game. Especially with the whole “migration” push, anet should expect an influx of new players, and I doubt they would be so exclusionary with the required materials.
I know these things can be purchased on the BLTC, and I know that (if you had the game, and were able to complete the living story requirements) players were gifted a home base node to harvest, but the guys and gals at anet are smart enough to know that those who didn’t get it during the Four Winds event will be relegated to buying from the TP, at the (lack of) mercy to those who did get it. That situation, given the fact that it is a rare, controlled material, has a potentially high requirement for each piece of gear, may be used for each of the 3 crafted armor classes, and is already time-gated, could cause the prices on the TP to get stupidly high, incredibly quickly. This would be enough of a similarity in elite gear being a breaking point, as it is in so many other MMOs, that the new players could/would be turned off immediately.
I’ve seen too much common sense, thoughtfulness and adaptability from the devs, to believe that this is a possible situation. They’ve given me every reason to have faith in them.
