Ok, I don't think you're a nut. I hear what you're saying. I have a couple of suggestions, still assuming we're talking about starting out on P99 as a new cleric with no high-level friends or alts to support you:
1) Join a guild. Find out who is interested in starting up a new alt, and group with them. Simply ask them for spell money and see if they will lend you some money to get gear, as well. It's in their best interest to take care of you, because you're keeping them alive in combat and contributing to their enjoyment of the game. Chances are, someone in guild chat or forums will take the opportunity to clear some nice stuff out of their bank by donating or discounting it to you, instead of throwing it away to an NPC vendor or leaving it on a neglected alt.
2) Start a regular hunting group and level up together. Try to schedule play periods. Set group priorities. Let them know how much your next line of spells will cost. Find out how much the other casters in group need for their spells. Find out how much it will cost to upgrade armor for the melees. Sit back and let them loot so they can get that lowbie magic weapon on sale in EC, and some banded.
Now it's your turn. You need 17 pp to buy that new bronze breastplate. Someone in Nektulos was selling some cheap +wis jewelry. Ok, let's go kill stuff in befallen until we have enough to get it for you. And while we're at it, grab a new cloak for our necro. Obviously, this will take a lot more work, but in the long run it will be much more rewarding and fun than simply having someone donate nice gear, or begging for plat.
3) You will not raise money on your own as a new cleric. Just accept this fact and move on. I got a little frustrated around level 30 with charm breaking and mezz being resisted (looking back, this might have been a temporary bug) and started playing my druid. I'd already twinked my then-teenage cleric with nice lowbie gear with my chanter while still in his 20's. But I made thousands on my druid by porting, and selling stuff in EC and GFay. When I started really playing my cleric again, people kept asking who my alt was, assuming that I had a higher level character to supply her with, but my druid was only in the low 30's, and eventually surpassed in level by the cleric.
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