Ermal's awful deal for advanced mechanical components

A few of the items Ermal is taking for advanced mechanical components can be recycled into advanced mechanical components. It's actually a terrible deal because a bastion cell, for instance, is worth 3k, so you'd have to give him two cells to get 1 mech, when you could just recycle the cells to get 2 mechs (plus arc alloy). Is this just meant to show that Ermal is a swindler?