The spirit of the game, as applied to an online community... .
First, I would like to thank you for the tool.

I've written a similar using utility, before realizing others had also done so, and to spectacular effect.
I would, however, like to expand on the crowd sourcing view-point you've shared, and see if it can be changed:
"My belief is that the crowd-sourced tools violate the true spirit of the game. You are not supposed to know commodity prices of systems you haven't visited. If this were the case it would have easily been built into the game in the first place."
I agree, that in the one sense it could violate the spirit of the game, if it was a stated goal of the design, that everyone operate in a bubble, yet work as a team in an online game with a community. It is entirely possible that the lack of such a community "feature" in the game is an oversight, and the community crafting third-party tools of these sorts are a welcome but in intended consequence of an online community.
Why would it be thought that, a future where commerce exists against a vast number of systems, that a network of shared data would not form between its denizens, making life easier for the society therein? It seems completely natural that organically, such networking would take place if this environment were to exist in real-life... . In fact, it is the function withing the game of stellar cartography that such networking is implemented in game (as far as it was seemingly thought about). Recall that the game has a solo play mode (as the original was not a community game) and in such a way, the Player Character (PC) doesn't have the opportunity to form this network of shared data with the Non-Player Characters (NPC)'s of the game (theoretically); whereas in the online community mode, (PC)'s can form this network, and would form it, and have done so (without altering (hacking) the game).
Already there are ideas from the community that Frontier Development (FD) have mentioned were being assimilated into the game. And if (FD) felt it violated the spirit of the game, I'm sure it would have been voiced. However, due to the external efforts of folks like yourself, it is possible that they (FD) will not select any one third-party commerce tool and incorporate it into the game, but rather add API's or other facilities to make such tools easier to create and or integrate into the gaming experience, and to promote community efforts to that effect. Game developers do typically love modding communities that form for their games, as long as the game is not harmed by such efforts. I don't think Traders and such break anything by networking the formation of trade routes and commerce data, or in fact any data within the virtual universe where a need for said data exists, and a natural networking effort would occur if it were in real-life, the meta-game if you will. With a background in EvE-Online, I can tell you the meta-game side-effect is very real and just as much a part of the game as what was produced directly by CCP.
Anyway, I enjoy the manual entry experience because as you suggest, the spirit feels the right way, however, I would say not to close off the networking aspect of the communities efforts because technically by being a community based game, it is also part of the spirit that the universe would evolve into a more connected one than not.
Thanks for reading my $.02.
Live long, and prosper,
Commander Darkstrumn