Well...
I didn't take part in the Beta, so I don't know how it was conducted, but if mission/passenger prices were screwed in the update then, surely, the problem would have been highlighted during testing? If not, what new code has been added between Beta release of 2.2?
What I'm saying is, it looks to me at this point like a combination of a lack of thorough testing and Quality Assurance, and a "rush to release" for passenger missions (and I previously worked for a company that was Big and Blue, so I know what "rush to release" looks like). Maybe they relied too much on feedback during Beta instead of thoroughly testing it all... who knows? It just feels like they introduced more bugs than they fixed.
I assume (hope) that they have a test environment where they can roll back to pre-2.2, and then start adding in the changes to see which one broke the economics. I'd even be happy with a rollback in the released version to pre-2.2, right now.
Saying all that, you CAN still find decent missions, occasionally, so you CAN make money, just not at the rate at which we've been used to. It does make the acquisition of A-class modules a huge grind (just bought a Python, no cash to upgrade it) and it's going to put new players off as well as stop a lot of existing players in their tracks who like to trade. It's no use saying "play it another way" as many people feel the joy of this game is that they can play it THEIR way, whatever way that may be. Because you may enjoy being a pirate or a bounty hunter or an explorer, it doesn't mean that you'd get as much enjoyment from the game if those aspects were nerfed, the way missions have been. It's not a prescriptive game, it's a sandbox.
Anyway, I got Elite on my BBC-B (and managed to get to Elite in rank, then, too) so I'm not going to abandon my favourite game, but I think they need to get a grip on current problems rather than concentrate on trivialities like what colour your laser beams are.
Happy grinding!