Yes, I think these two are bound up together. If money <=> magic items (and thus items are part of the party "build"/resources) then the resource availability has to be constrained.
One other possibility is for the DM to track the PCs' total "net g.p. worth" and continually aim for a specified "glide path" in their treasure inclusion, but that is a bit clunky/hard work for the DM.
If money becomes "fluff", would it still perform the reward/motivation to step up to the challenge/enter the dungeon function it has traditionally done? I don't really know - I just preferred the original 4E design where it was a resource relevant to play (and the only one that was freely sharable by the party as a whole, rather than tied to a specific PC).
Money was absolutely completely nothing but fluff in 2e, and depending on if you charged PCs for training (which many people didn't) it was fluff in 1e as well. I never noticed the players being any less motivated to find treasure in 2e than any other edition. It might have been a bit less of a primary concern than when it was your source of XP in 1e, but players LIKE treasure. They have dreams and ideas for the game and for their characters. They LOVE to do fluffy things (well, most players do). The players will go after gold just because they like to do things like build houses, etc. There are always going to be SOME ways they can leverage their wealth into some concrete advantages, but DMs can be well advised on how to make that pretty much unimportant.
For instance gaining a henchman can be accomplished only via an SC. You can do various things in the course of this SC to get a henchman, some of them can be 'spend money', but there are plenty of alternate paths that don't involve needing lots of cash. Nor does throwing cash at the problem provide a better solution than any other. The end result is the same, and if cash is just something that you play around with anyway then using it to get a henchman is just an application of fluffing things. "Oh, I spend a lot of money on drinks in the bar" vs "Oh, I use Streetwise to scope out who's got a reputation as a fighter looking for work." Spending the cash might grant automatic success, Streetwise might require a check. You gain some minor amount of advantage from having the gold, but not enough so that you MUST have it. The end results can be just as good either way.
My experience so far says Mike Mearls was pretty much spot on in his comments. At Heroic rituals are rarely used, but by late Heroic/Early Paragon they cut in and later they get ridiculously cheap. I am hopeful that the rework they are doing can "stretch" this "sweet spot" that remains in 4E...
Actually, a good example might be the Alchemical items, with their fixed "to Hit" bonuses and damage. Currently, they are too expensive at the levels they might be useful, and nearly worthless at the levels where they are affordable. A 'sliding scale' of bonus and damage by cost might allow them to remain a viable option throughout.
I think the feat cost for ritual casting might aught to just go away. That won't make every character an expert at it but it will spread it around if people want it. Once you buy a ritual book for a nominal cost then you can either pay for rituals or find them and copy them (or get them from your buddies). You probably still don't want TOO many as books are kind of heavy and each one can hold only a limited number of rituals. Casting them can still cost gold. The main thing is to make sure that the things you can do with them are fairly unique. Unlike the old time wizard problem where the wizard has all the solutions to the world's problems this isn't so much of an issue here as you still need good skills and anyone can potentially learn a few rituals so they have access to that aspect of the game. I'd also create some rules for refluffing rituals in terms of more mundane activities, like Enchant Item can just as easily be "hammer on some adamantium at a dwarven forge for a week" (and then use STR or WIS instead of Arcana to resolve).
Mostly I think rituals just need to be more embedded in the core of the game, have more distinct uses, have a bit lower entry cost, and that gold needs to be pretty much fluff and thus the casting cost is more a choice for the player of "OK, there are these things I can do, they don't cost me adventuring-wise, but they have to be balanced against my character's goals."
), but division of resources would be fine by me. The problem I forsee is that several folk seem to dislike it when they have to bother their little heads about another resource to manage...
