I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
The OP's question and issue completely flew over your head. It's not about trading one item to another player. Never has been. It's about two people each having something the other wants and agreeing to trade one for the other and wanting to ensure the other player doesn't scam him.
That all said, to answer the OP, the reason you can't do it is because the developers decided they don't want you to be able to do that because of the reasons Mif listed in Post #4 in this thread.
The upside outweighs the downside.
Humans are the only species on the planet smart enough to be this stupid.
Normal trading isn't any more flawed of a system than what's in GW2. There will always be ways to exploit transactions in any system where commodities change hands. There will be scams in GW2 just as there are in any other game. Any time you take part in a transaction there is an inherent risk, and if you aren't paying attention and get ripped off because of it, that's your problem.
Well, some games have stronger player protection rules in that prevent behavior like that. It's negative behavior that can significantly affect someones enjoyment of a game, and seeing as it's in the best interest of developers to keep players happy, some of them will take action in instances like that.
It's not a bad or good thing that they do this, it's just a decision they make. Plenty of other games don't punish for behavior like this and actually give players the tools to take advantage of other players and the economy (EVE for example).
I completely agree, I thought the system was great. It took me about 30secs to get out of the 'trading' way I used to do it in WoW and adopt this new method. It was great. I could just name the stats on skype, "yeah that's mint I take it" 2 secs later "cheers, I got it" I was using the mail system all the time and it was incredibly easy to use.
The only issue would be trading with strangers but that's what the trading post/auction house is for. That system also is great, not only can I buy stuff but I can request it as well. Its also very easy to use. Only problem was going to the pick up point to get my purchased item but due to waypoints it was hardly a major issue.
all in all I understand why they have done it this way and I think they have done a great job.
I hope you haven't forgotten my role in this little story. I'm the leading man. You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
If you give in to your impulses in this world, the price is that it changes your personality in the real world. The player and character are one and the same.
You're taking a risk, the same kind of risk you would take in GW2 mailing the mats to a crafter to craft an item for you. You have to weigh the risks, and you have to find ways of offsetting the risks by making them give up a product of equal value to ensure the return of your product.