Yes, what is the point of an economy in this type of game? Again, I'll point towards BG2 as early it served as a plot gathering the sum to continue the story, but besides that you had a couple of stores with selective powerful desirable items which also costs a lot, but at some point you were just filthy rich, and I think that's okay. It no longer servers a purpose and it doesn't have to, because at that state in the adventure there were more pressing concerns than worrying about your party-gold. And it did actually serve one purpose, which brings us back to crafting, which BG2 did so well compared to the MMO-model "gather 3 wood-planks"-kind of crafting. It could cost half your collected fortune to craft all those special artifact-items, but man, they were worth it, both because you knew the story behind each item, you knew you had accomplished great feats to gather the ingredients and parts, so you felt worthy. And it wasn't set up like a chore, rather, like a nice surprise. You didn't have a check-list of silly items you needed to gather, it was more fluid and roleplayed into the conversations with the NPC's.
Also, having to "sacrifice" an NPC to be the craftman doesn't sound like fun.
An economy, with moneysinks and all, should serve the core gameplay I think. From what I hear, they are added for the wrong reasons. In BG2 money served a purpose and then became just something you had enough of, and that was totally okay, because if you're a demigod chasing after your lost soul, you don't want to worry about money. Early game, it's great because it's about getting on your feet and learning how to survive and fight, and money can be part of that too, but like I said, I think it's okay if it becomes arbitrary at some point. You don't need a moneysink to make sure money goes out of the hands of the player, because what purpose does it serve?