I am a little confused about this.
Last cession, there was a big price difference between the black guy and the other fighters, thanks to his unability to run.
It allowed poor players to buy a melee character that was very efficient (far better than ghouls or knives girl) in pve, and farm his first stuff.
Now, all mercenaries are cheaper, and very poor player can afford every kind of melee mercenaries. So a running black mercenaries won't affect poor players.
But if prices go high, like last cession, when North bandit bought thousand of mercs for their optimized militia, the whole concept of a cheap good mercenary for pve would sink into the waste.