people generally won't trade with you unless it helps them in some way
Not necessarily. People engaged in real trade set up financial institutions, but once these institutions are set up, a game is in place. That game may be beneficial overall to the businesses, but individual players aren't necessarily beneficial... even if they are participating according to the agreed upon rules.
It's like cashing in a Groupon deal and then never returning to that business. The company loses money on you and they only agree to serve you because it works for them at scale. But at the micro scale you are hurting them.
People who do so have every right to, but they are not contributing to the economy. They are just making a lot of money by making other peoples' lives more difficult.