Like I said in my follow-up post, you can go the 4e way of handing out the treasure that the players want. But I don't think this is the direction that the anti-item-creationist were suggesting, of less rather than more player control over item acquisition.Seems a trivial change to me. Long-time 3e players will squall, to be sure, but they do get over it. Just hand out the treasure they need when you think they need it.
Really I'm astounded that you can't easily envision it.
Unless by "need" you mean "need in the opinion of the GM" rather than "desired by the players". In that case I can't envision that sort of GM control being consistent with the general tenor of 3E - as I said in my follow-up post.