So, what's the deal with exalted orbs or does the POE economy just not make sense?

The game is broken in terms of currency imbalance sink even outside of player's usage.

Regal orbs are not needed much when u buy something from Forsaken Masters it is always require chaos orb. Even master crafting, u'll see more chaos requirements than Regal.

then we have Exalted orb problems. Check out how many types of forsaken master crafting require exalted orbs? Divine orbs have almost the same drop rarity, yet the orb is under used even in the game crating requirement let alone player own crafting.

What about bless orb? rarely use also.

Lets check out Tora/Vagan vendor discount. Jewel orb for chrome, Regret orb for Alchemy. totally broken.

Sometimes I wonder does GGG even know the game itself at all. take a look at the most expensive zana league mod = they recently change it to exalted orb instead of divine. It feels like divine/blessed orb are almost totally ignored by the developer despite both of them are quite rare.

IMO they should have at least balance the currency usage/sink around the rarity of the currency itself.