For me, I only buy the recipes if it is something that I’m going to want multiple of.
With that in mind, I seldom buy the recipes from Rolis Hlaalu because they are almost always focal, I-only-want-one kind of items. I don’t know if ZOS takes this into consideration when they choose which items get assigned to him or not.
If the row of sunflowers had been assigned to Rolis, I likely would have purchased the recipe. Likewise, if the Tide-born hut had been on the luxury furnishing vendor tens of thousands of gold would have been removed from the game instead of being recycled back into the pockets of some whale.
I wanted to share my thoughts because it doesn’t always seem to make sense to me how cheap ugly stuff ends up at the luxury furnishing vendor when there are clearly desirable assets in the game. They get “gatekept” behind a system that only benefits wealthy, veteran players.