Just because it is not posted in the forums that it is a bug doesn't mean it's not. I completely disagree with your logic and fail to understand how you could even think what you do. I would take a GM's word over lack of a post anyday.
I also think you have not been reading these posts very thoroughly at all. It would be one thing if a node was empty from time to time, but as I have stated I have been there many, many times and gotten nothing. Sounds to me like you might be more worried about a little bit of good competition with good mats or something rather than about whether what a GM said was true or not. Everything you have stated is pretty much an opinion, not fact. I have based everything I have said regarding the bugged, yes I said bugged nodes in PR off of facts and things stated by the GM's themselves. And personally imo your get used to it attitude stinks. We should not have to get used to things that are not done right.
Interesting indeed, yea, I have a 'get used to it' attitude because its less stressful, why worry about something that you know is going to happen anyway.
They announced the changed in PR, and guess what, what they announced is what is actually happened.
Call it a bug if you want, doesn't matter to me either way.
Sure, I take GM's words at face value, when they state it openly, and I have heard it, who is to say a GM stated its a bug and has first hand knowledge of this bug from developers, I am positive that if this was the case, it would be posted in the announcements from the GM's so the players don't even talk about it.
They do that with most everything else.
Yes, there are other games out there, and when you login, at that second, understand you have to 'get used to it' on how that game works.
No one here can understand the logic behind most of the items programmed into the game, and the order of which there put in, and you really do need to get used to it, or you will go mad.
One day I had access to supreme q250 mats for jewelry, the next the nodes were GONE, not empty, just gone, yea I got used to it, moved around and found more stuff.
Another day, I had a place to get excellent moon resin q150, within 3 days, that spot was gone, replaced by kitin secretion, well, oh well, got used to it, moved on found other places to harvest.
There is nothing on the boards at the moment that state that the PR harvest is broken other than oppninions, and yes, to me there opninions, because I take what the patch stated as to how prime roots harvesting was to work, at face value, got used to it, and found something else to do with my time.
If you played 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and stood in the exact same spot, ahd prospected every 5 minutes of each hour, and the same nodes came up empty, that could be a bug.
Who's to say that its not populating while your offline, and someone comes in and cleans it out, absolutely nothing.
This to me, makes sense, that it is actually popping with mats in it while your offline, and joe somebody comes along and strip mines it clean and moves on, you get back online, go to your spot, and petition a GM and say, look its still empty.
I can see that happening.
I have my own view on it, just like you do, and we are both entitled to our assumptions on how its working as long as there is no official announcement as to it being broken, which at current there is no official announcement on the board.
That is what I physically see.
Edit:
Proof in point by Gek's post above mine, this makes sense to me.
From what I have observed and experienced in PR, the empty nodes are due to over harvesting. Sometimes the nodes recharge quickly, sometimes they don't. Usually changes in weather will trigger changes in nodes, but sometimes I just have to sit and wait or go elsewhere.
Initially I thought the empty nodes were a bug and I filed a bug report on it. Now as I spend more time in PR, it appears that the empty nodes are by design. Not that I like it, but it is currently one aspect among many that makes PR harvesting challenging and the rewards sweeter.