1. An artificial, rigid caste system that allowed only a tiny pool of players to produce the best buffs

2. An artificial, rigid "ingredients" system that ensured the best buff could only be made from one extremely rare material (and no amount of innovation could escape this)

Anarchists would argue that those types of market restrictions are bound to cause oligopolies to form!

That said, even with his oligopoly, it sounds like he nearly single-handedly created a huge market for that avian meat, and that market enriched a lot of other players.

I might be misreading the story, though!