People get all mad when you tell them to do that. I think it's like psyco effect like whenever a person plays a game like this for a long time and doesn't figure out easy things to do on thier own, then when told it's a reaction like 'oh that's CHEAP, it's Cheezy, It's an exploit". But whatever they do on thier own is just "that's how you play the game".
They changed it so it can be sold by the store now(some versions ago). I've seen the max body armor in store, not sure it a more expensive one exists somehow though.
I've seen enough high cost items to think they didn't change anything from 1.6 to 1.6.1, but I if they did it should be in the patch notes. Then again they do seem to leave some stuff out of patch notes, or it could be oversight. Better go havest some spouses!