I think its tuned way too harsh.
I think putting in effort and investing many hours doing old tradeskill quests, doing many many old trade skill dailies for the best gathering/mount gear, leveling mounts and familiars PLUS actually going around gathering in the game world should absolutely give you a return on your investment. Right now as Smashey says, just having many alts with ponies and plants is the superior method. Being a gatherer is a waste of your time, unless you for some reason really, really enjoy it.
My maxed out gatherer is also around 3.5 to 4% harvesting in Splendor Sky Aerie.