I reckon there aren't enough necks, earlobes and fingers in Kusari to display the amount of Diamonds that are imported from Rheinland. Short of drilling holes through each of their planets to make them all donut shaped, the Kusarians probably don't need that many Diamonds for their mining operations. As much as I believe that the buildings in Kusari are all coated in Diamond by now, the fact that the route is (perhaps) the one that pays the most in the game, doesn't make it unreasonable in terms of role play. If anything, the fact that the route pays a lot only makes it more reasonable that people will explore it regardless of all the risks involved.
There was a fearsome gold rush here in Brazil in the middle of the 80s at the state of Para. People from all around the country (and probably from neighbor countries as well) moved to the site lured by the promise of it. The place is in the middle of nowhere and there was no infrastructure to accomodate all the workers. The government had to intervene and send in the army to try and come with emergency measures to try and revert the situation (not remove the people from there, but try and create a minimal infrastructure so they could survive there). After a while, landslides would happen from the intensive digging, a lot of people died in those. Still, the people that went there, they couldn't care less. They would risk their lives for much less than a sure thing. They would risk their lives for the off chance of getting rich.
Even though the prices offered for Diamonds in Kusari would probably have dropped considerably by now, they didn't because of the game mechanics. Kusarians still pay good money for it there. Even though the route through Chugoku is questionable (?) because of the Dragons that would probably have put a whole matrix of weapon platforms around the jumphole for the sake of a little privacy in their "secret" system, they didn't because of game mechanics. The jump hole is still undefended, the NPCs can still be ignored, players aren't always there and the route is still the fastest one (or at least is perceived as such). Even though Sigma-13 may be the system with the heaviest pirate presence in Sirius, there is also a heavy presence of Bounty Hunters in the area (the traders' alteregos), pirates eventually get busy amongst themselves or simply aren't there.
Thing is, the problem with the route is that its yield is unballanced if compared to most of the others, so people will explore (not exploit) it in favor of the other routes. Apart from telling a story, the only reward of trading, as far as this game is concerned, is making money. Trading is not thrilling as fighting is. If there's anything unreasonable, as far as the said "ooRP" goes, is characters whose sole purpose is to disrupt the route.
So, if you are portraying a self employed trader character that lacks any instinct of self preservation and can only see profit in front of him, most likely the Diamond/Niobium run is the right route for you. If you are portraying someone who works for a firm that completely disregards the safety of its employees for the sake of making an extra buck, than the Diamong/Niobium is the right route for you. If you are portraying a self employed trader character that has any concern for his well being, then perhaps you should try some more reasonable routes. If you are portraying someone who works for a firm that is concerned with the safety of its employees, then you should find a safer route. If you aren't roleplaying your trader character at all, then no matter what route you do, you'll always be "ooRP".
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