imho an even better use of the traders would be that you HAVE to use them, like for some recipes u need things which only traders can provide, similar to how ancient stone can’t be crafted, u have to search for it.
buy secrets, geocaching type info, search and find: maps, locations of dragons, locations of hot mining areas, things that get you out into the world, long distance expeditions.
maybe some larger villages can have museums which will buy rare fossils which u find out in the wild to display, and traders can have a role in selling info in some fun lore type of way, like a dead explorer’s journal(books) where they have some entries about finding the tip of what appeared to be a huge fossil, and that they plan to return once they are re-supplied or something like that.
reports of a shipwreck lost out at sea, which you NEED a nautilus to go and find, and has actual expensive items, like staffs n such, not the usual boring stuff.
the accuracy can be vague, like ~100 nodes vicinity, or more, depends maybe on the type of discovery or hunt. museums could be in sync with each other, similar to the bulletin boards, so each player can see the rare things others have found and get bragging rights too.
an extension of that idea would be to have super rare wildlife that players find and catch to display in zoos. or trading in bred animals which come out with beautiful and unique markings, maybe those could be sold at auction, which may only be fun if there are enough players participating, and there are not many players of MT in general, but great games like mesecraft have the potential to draw in more and more players.
since this thread is about economy, maybe some villages, since there are so many scattered about, can have bakeries, or restaurants offering items with extremely complex recipes(which are fun for some of us to craft, and a pain in the ass for others/most) which add huge hunger and saturation as well as hydration, or even a bar to get pissed drunk and stumble around, for a bit of fun 🙂