Aliiyah, I'm sorry we can not see eye to eye on that... but I think smn's are often most saught out for assistance in carby mitts for one main reason... "there's a better chance they're familiar with the quest more than anyone else".
Just like when doing rank 5 or CoP missions... it's nice to have someone along who knows wth is going on. Heck, look at me the other night... I had no clue where to go, who to talk to, what I needed... Fiera and the group had to practically hold my hand.
I'm glad you and I realize the carby mitts are not a necessity. However, for those players that think they are... there's a good chance said player exploits higher level players for goodies and items and/or doesn't have a clue what is required in the carby mitts (as most smn's who "need" the mitts are unfamiliar with). So of course, they seek out a smn's assistance first because the smn probably has a better idea of what is required than the nin. At least that is my logic since it is JSE... so I don't see why that couldn't be anyone else's logic.
Not everyone thinks the same. There are some that know to keep things respective, but there's others who have difficulty thinking of the scenario from the other POV. I still doubt there wouldn't be a few exploiters in the all SMN ls... but that is neither here nor there when in comparison with LS' in general... I think nearly every LS has people that carry more weight than they should have to... as well as others that take more than they have ever considered giving.