Badge exchange

Ya know, I've played this game for a while.. but I never once exchanged badges for resources. always for crates, as I thought most people did.. and I see a lot of people complaining that this is all a bad change..

So I don't actually know tho, what were the previous rates for plastic and electronics? Compared to what they are now? And will this make farming badges more valuable(/tedious) or less?

Is this really going to affect the market and "grinding" that bad? Some people are even saying crafting and flipping for profit isn't can't be done anymore and that was the intention, is there any truth to this cus I don't remember the devs saying anything about it?

Lastly, any way to make a profit with this? lol. If I buy a ton of plastic/electronics now and resell later, or save my badges? xD