Skill packages --Some professions getting better discount on skill packages than others -- Yes, this will happen. The rules regarding this will be setup to keep this sort of thing to an absolute minimum, but with the way the RM system works, there is no way around that happening to at least a very minor degree other than doing a specific cost per package for each profession, and
that just ain't gonna happen.
The folks working on this are not stupid, and this is part of what is being considered. Give them some credit at least....
The same applies for multiple ranks of a skill.
Items --The problem isn't that discounted items have "
little additional value", it is that they have too much. it leads down the path to power-gaming, and the skill packages will already cause enough temptation in that direction already. If we start allowing discounted items to be associated to a skill package, how long before somebody wants to include magical items, or non-magical bonus items, etc., etc.
And that is in addition to it causing more complex rules (because you then have to assign a DP value to the item, and to the discount it receives.).
Better to chop that one off at the knees. It is much more trouble than it is worth. Better to create package deals on items, similar to those found in RoCoI, that are NOT tied to any skill package or other set of rules that depend upon Development Points. Keep money issues with money issues and DP issues with DP issues.