I know your idea of prices for fish is not massive amounts but still you asking this is making me ignore that since you mentioned "shard meta" so sorry for the long spiel incoming. Its a bit of support to the idea but also a "state of the economy from my POV" as I've always been opinionated on that matter.
Its too safe of an activity to make it so profitable that it becomes "meta". Realize that with the possible profits from Resource Isles that making fishing a shard meta would be absolutely insane. RIs are the main profit source I can think of alongside XP bottles sales in recent history so that's how I'm defining meta in my head which bring in massive amounts of shards to those who use them. Don't get me started on the raffle profits people make at tournaments (oh no what I monster I've created from years ago).
Fish are a possible t-gen resource and maybe can be used in future custom recipes. Fishing in multiplayer games, that I have experienced anyway, have primarily been focused on cosmetic rewards and I don't see us adding more support to fishing outside of that (which we already have titles that can be earned and competed over so I don't know what else we'd do honestly but that's not my department to think on).
Maybe in the future quests can purchase fish based on their weight category but I wouldn't expect it to really be a notable source of income if we ever decide to do that.
Another big issue is the idea of "a lot of shards" is so massively different to players. There are players who just don't go to the RI and think a few grand of shards is insane when to people who actively use activities make that and more in a day on average it seems. Also while it doesn't technically give direct shards, the value of materials you can obtain from the recently added infested tiles do be pretty bonkers. The RI and Infested Tiles all should be way more contested/active in my opinion with the pure value you can get. The reward by far outweighs the risk if you just get a single solid run.
A lot of what I already said was stated previously and then just transitioned into my favorite subject on how most Lokans seem to be too scared to become as filthy rich as they can easily get but that last question of yours really just made me feel like I had to give in my two cents as someone who fished way too much in my first year of Loka and someone who's been coasting on their wealth from other sources for years whilst angrily shaking my old man fist at the young folk complaining about money when its easier than ever now.
