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I think he means stuff like how "Create Earth" hasn't been used to dominate the metal ore market...
Or 'Shape Stone' completely dominate the construction market. Or the fact that classical-style knights exist for no apparent reason.
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On Create Earth, Earth to Stone, Shape Stone, Shape Metal, etc. - do we know that these *aren't* in fact extensively used as part of Yrth's economy? Perhaps these, along with Bless Plants, etc., are why Yrth is able to support a larger percentage of its population as city dwellers rather than farmers, why those cities tend to have nice stone or at least stone-faced walls (and remember that worked stone is much harder to Shape), why there're enough metal weapons and armor to go around, and so on. There's not a lot of detail given about mining, smelting, and smithing activities of a more mundane sort in the setting, as far as I can recall.
Even if there is a line or two about slaves being sent to the mines or whatever, it's possible that either a) this is just done in areas where lots of Earth mages aren't available or are too busy with other tasks, 2) it's only done in areas with ores that aren't duplicated by vanilla Create Earth, or 3) it's more in the nature of make-work punishment than a productive economic activity