Only euro had balanced mining, usa went downhill in that regard and its all due to exploitation by unscrupulous players that we can't have good mining experience anymore. :'(
Because if like here, you make it pretty rare to get ore, you shouldn't forget that mining is fairly dull way to play a game and that's why it needs to be more rewarding than if you spent that time killing mobs while leveling. Because at the end of the day, that is less boring and even if you have nothing itemwise to show for it, at least you got some experince behind your belt. In mining if you aren't lucky, you pretty well wasted the time.
I know I never felt that bad while leveling that if I got nothing but experience points for few days, that I would stop doing that. I don't mean those time when you get sick of leveling -.-
But I know that if for several days I didn't have much any luck while mining, I did abandon mining. I don't think your argument stands.