I'm glad that there is NOT a functioning Magic Item Economy in the game. It avoids the absurd situation I had in a 3.5 Eberron campaign. My Druid Character returned to his home village at about level 8 or so. The money he had spent on Magic items, was more than enough to set the entire VILLAGE up for life. Really messed with my suspension of disbelief that he wouldn't just sell the items, and provide for his family.The items/weapons that a character can buy - just like how it is now, but in a more expanded, fuller sense - for starters.
Now, with Magic items unavailable to buy (and likewise just as difficult to sell), I avoid that situation. Especially since magic items DON'T have a set GP price. You can have characters covered in Magic Items if you like, while still being dirt poor, and unable to provide for their family, giving them a reason / motivation to go adventuring.
But as soon as you assign rules, they become expected, and we are back to the "Wealth by Level" guidelines or 3.5/4 edition. Once you can spend gold to increase your character's adventuring effectiveness, then those characters that choose to spend their money on other things (providing for family, building a temple, bribes, buying a keep, climbing the social ladder), quickly fall behind the power curve.The same way that there is a tiny economy for buying basic weapons, armor, healing potions, etc... This wouldn't need to depend on basic rules/PHB (fyi I've yet to see an AL table that didn't allow all available rules).
As far as I can see, Either gold can be spent to make you better at adventuring, in which case for most (many, lots, at least some significant amount) tables, will become you MUST spend at least most of your gold on getting better at adventuring, OR Gold has no impact on your effectiveness at adventuring.
Any position you try to establish in the middle, quickly defaults to requiring magic to be successful. I'm actually glad there is very little to spend my Gold on to make me a more effective adventurer. Means my PC doesn't have to go chasing every single Gold Piece.