The inscription system stomped on rarity as an indicator of value

I was in Kamadan the other day to zone to an area in Nightfall (I forgot which one) and I noticed people selling blue r8 15 Armor shields. Considering that you can get 16 armor and r8, it isn't that great. Yet people still buy them?

What surprised me was the sale of a R6 14 armor shield which was blue rarity, as well as a blue R3 10 armor. Before Nightfall this would not have been possible since anything not gold lacks maxed mods. I also saw a R7 max spawning focus once but I didn't bother to buy it.

I know the Z-key spam has made gold inscribables drop like hotcakes. However, could someone explain why people are selling every req under the sun, even if it isn't gold?

Supposedly it is linear for inscribables:
R8 = 16 armor
R7 = 15
R6 = 14
R5 = 13
R4 = 12
R3 = 11
R2 = 10
R1 = 9
R0 = 8
am I right?

Never mind that Icy Dragon Swords, Vampiric Dragon Swords, the Bison Cup, crafted Deldrimor weapons, Thunderfist's Brass knuckles, and other non-drops are "gold" even though they ought to be green...it is confusing sometimes to be honest. I can understand things like Wintergreen weapons and Tormented weapons (sort of?).

Well, simply spoken the "r3 10ar" Shields, "r6 14ar" Shields, etc. have use in PvP. So a lot of PvP-Players don't care about rarity so much, but more about usability. E.g. a Mo/W might be able to spend 4 points on tac., so buy a req4 12ar Shield, and if you can't find one fast enough, then just take a req4 11ar one that will still work better than a req9 16ar one.

Practicality + Usability > Rarity

But most items are (or used to be) "rare" because rare meant "max mods". That is the usability.

People will pay 100k + ectos for a Draconic scythe or a Voltaic spear and it certainly is not because of usability because you can get their stats from crafters.

Since inscriptions rarity is defined by different systems. In terms of shields its the armor you will get from it, which is why 8/16, 7/16 or 7/15 are worth the most because most monk builds will run that much, and therefore get the most armor, without having to devote so much to get r9 which then gets destroyed by weakness.

In terms of other weapons its mainly skins, there are probably 1-5 skins of each weapon still worth alot, excluding tormenteds, most of which are swords or spears. Req obviously has an impact, lower req = higher price.

Usibility in PvP (especialy GvG); monks use a Mo/W bar with (varying on the bar) 3-8 tactics and the extra 3-8 armor you can get from those shields is very helpful. PvP is where perfection comes into play rather then 1337sauce 1ofakind 13^hex r7 itamz.

So now I feel bad for trashing so many low req shields. When I last played heavily about 2 years ago nobody was buying/selling these R7/15Armor and R6 14 armor shields...