Badges of Justice... OR Conspiracy Theory???

This is another fun meta post. I was thinking about this a little last night. Bremagorn accumulated enough badges to have over 100 and visit the badge vendor on the island. I purposefully left his badges in his bank and avoid an impulse purchase.

After annoying my guildmates way too much about which to choose -- pants or chest, I think I've finally decided on the chest piece. I would save for the crossbow, but it doesn't seem that much better than mine, I have a skill of 1, AND I thin the crossbow is ugly.

So, then I actually got thinking about why we're using badges now. There seems a very simple answer. Blizzard has introduced a hard to acquire, soulbound object as currency to combat gold farming and account hacking. Gold is a very liquid currency. It can be moved easily, transferred by trade or mail, and is used for a great many things in game. Liquid currencies are easy to move and hide. And it's very easy to hack accounts to get at it.

Soulbound items can't be traded or sold (on the AH). Instead of charging 10,000 G for the new gear, the price was set instead at a number of badges.

However, what would be happening in game? Why on earth would vendors like the new smith WANT all these badges of justice? Is she hording them for some purpose. And if they're truly soul bound how can she even accept them (yes, I know she's an NPC. It's just a thought experiment). Or perhaps she is working both sides. Perhaps, she's SELLING the Badges that we turn in to bosses in raids and heroic dungeons. Perhaps the raid bosses are also doing their dailies to open a new vendor so they can gear up! Sort of makes ME wonder...