/holdsbreath and /takesvacationdays and /cutsself and /omgreplydevsitoldyouvotewasrigged and /fixitorcancellingmy27goldaccountsirolledjustforthis (It seems to work for them, why not for us!)
These NPCs were introduced as a way to consolidate the PoK vendor items onto single vendors. What items did these NPCs sell that aren't available elsewhere in PoK?
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=114351 for one. That was what I wanted. The people that make cultural stuff can answer for that..
The cultural vendor had numerous items which cannot be obtained by other methods. Some items like mechanoinstructions can - but is beyond tedious which is why I'm guessing they were also put on that vendor. As it stands, people can't make TDS cultural raid armor, etc. among other things. People have reported this multiple times in the patch bug thread though. More details are probably there.
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=43324 for armor http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=116143 is mainly what I need and can not find anywhere else
That was the case when they were introduced. Then TDS came out and things were added to them and them alone.
I think you are aware that taking away a convenience is going to bother players whether the items were available else where or not. It's like giving a gift then taking it away again. So your question isn't as relevant as you might think. I don't even do trade skills and I can appreciate that.
The 9th post in the patch bug thread says that all the new cultural recipes are broken from the loss of those vendors https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/update-bugs-05-19-15.220664/ It was also reported in the test patch bug thread https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/test-update-05-15-15.220404/ In addition, there are other bugs, and blatant omissions from the patch notes being reported in those threads!
We are paying for the game, dedicating ourselfs to schedules to raid and they are giving no attention AT all to what is going on here, i'm impressed and disappointed.
We've gone over the list of items sold by the consolidated merchants with a fine-toothed comb, paying particular attention to the items they sell that are not otherwise available in Knowledge, and nothing appears to be out of place. We will get this out to Live servers soon(tm).