This would ensure anyone can sell things and collect enough to buy food and water.
I don't want to ensure that.
It'd be better if there was no sure food and water, and that at least until you become quite confident in your skills, being dependent on other entities, such as established characters, clans and indie groups, is the norm. There will NEVER be a shortage of hunters, EVER, but most hunters won't sell you meat unless you're paying more than the npc will pay for cooked meat. It's no longer going to be viable, to sell 5 steaks of every kind to the npc, every reboot. It'll no longer be possible, to sell five of every hide and shell to an npc, every reboot.
Hunters selling meat and food products at well below what the npcs sell for, will become a viable option. Seeking out independents and house crafters both, will become required to unload all those hides and shells. If we eliminated free food for clans, or at least clan employees, hiring a reliable House hunter would actually matter, else hiring fickle independents becomes a necessity. And cooks. Suddenly, being a master chef isn't just a foppish flavor deal, but being responsible for keeping other pcs fed, to a standard appropriate to the clan, is a real and meaningful job.
When pcs MUST work together, or feed off of each other like parasites, there is unavoidable interactions. Atm, you can and many do, avoid pc contact beyond their ooc circle of friends, or those that are the most safe and comfortable, because nobody needs other pcs for anything. Even a heavy craft class has ABSOLUTELY no need for other pcs. I hope, these changes to npc merchants, will make grouping up not just possible, but neigh-requisite for success.
Tbh, I mostly solo myself, because I don't care to indulge in a lot of the stuff people regularly push for, as far as interactions go. I don't much care for the shit ic/ooc attitude of most sponsor roles, as must carry on like they don't even CARE about their business. I don't care for, largely, how disposable absolutely everyone is to each other. And all of this is, imo, due to the fact nobody NEEDS each other, for anything. The clans, indie groups, it's all CONTRIVED, simply "because interaction".
A game where we are not carried by npc hand outs, and "going without" means going hungry and dehydration instead of "going without the best gear and an apartment in every town", is my ideal.
Work together, or feed off of each other, but either way, having no choice but to depend on other pcs for survival and not enough to go around, will make the entire experience more visceral, with "real" consequences you won't be able to handwave off.