What's with Heavy Cloth?

[Winter]

Looks fair to me.  By our calculations the difference in use between these materials certainly isn't as large as you are making it seem.
Heavy Cloth is used only slightly more than Hardened Metal on average.  This is reflected in the prices and supply on the Auction Hall.  I think there is also a bit of exaggeration here, 2k each is nowhere near legendary prices and certainly isn't high enough to "halt crafting," especially given how much Hardened Metal has lowered in price to offset this.  2500 less gold per HM compared to roughly 1k more per rough cloth still makes things much cheaper on average.