What's your take on it?

Perhaps it could be made optional?  Like an "everywhere but Centrum" option?

as well as the monopoly now in place, now availability in an area has absolutely no meaning. at least before the local markets would get by with a few trades to the people who didnt have a trader in centrum (even if just a few people) but now if you buy locally your doing a favor

I would have much rather that they had increased the visibility radius of the marketplace such that someone in the newbie circle with a few levels (5-10) in their market place could see Centrum.

I cant really think of any other views a buyer would have other than getting his good as cheaply as possible, in that case this is an ideal situation 

I'm not sure I see a problem here.  You can already sort by what's important to you.  If it's distance over price, sort by the distance from the town accessing the market and you'll see all the nearby orders to that town.

I disagree that same effect is making it slower to get your orders accepted.  What's making it slower is your desire to pay as little as possible for the goods you want.  Otherwise Centrum prices wouldn't be interfering with your visibility as your offers would near the top of the page even with Centrum "clutter".  Granted it's something all buyers want to do just as sellers want to get the best price for their wares.  That perceived harder time to spot your offers may be more a result from the seller now seeing higher priced buy offers than yours than whether they could find yours among the "clutter".

I find I frequently purchase from who is closest rather than who is cheapest, personally, but in general if I want something, I want it now - and spending extra gold is easier than spending extra prestige.

Perhaps you live in an area where there are a lot of local sellers of basic resources, but usually I don't ship basics more than 200 squares away for less than 1 gold per unit.  It's just not worth wasting my caravan carrying time.

For basic resource city orders, what you're paying for is the convenience of having caravans deliver, so if you ever had the experience of paying hub order prices for city to city delivery of basics, that wouldn't be consistent with my general experience of trade in basics.

As a seller of basics, I'd rather ship stuff to my local hubs for indefinite storage than ship them 500 squares for less than 1 gold per unit.  With or without Centrum visibility.

But the main problem is that there just aren't enough traders or demand for crafted items to make trading a worthwhile exercise.  Most people have figured out that it is better just to equip commanders and just build more military units rather than equip the whole unit with crafted gear.

My 2c.

I liked the idea someone mentioned that Centrum offer comparison prices in other hubs for those not near Centrum and leave Centrum for the local players vision for purchase, i.e. not near Centrum a few hundred squares, you won't be able to buy from Centrum but you see the items in visible hubs near you. Stop the monopoly Centrum has.

2cents less.

The devs seem to realize this, and thankfully they rectified it by giving everyone access to Centrum, and the ability to fulfill orders. An essential step to make the game more accessible to new players, who have enough on their plate without having to figure out all the convoluted steps in this glaring failure of a trade system.

The minor inconvenience some players have in viewing local orders doesn't weigh up to that necessity.