It doesn't work the way it's supposed to. You're supposed to actually research the cubes, hence the Title "research mission". I think they should just switch the requirement for completing the mission to the completion of a cube. Much like they do with kill missions, you get credit as you research and the money upon completion. This should be like this for all tradeskill missions.
This would definitely help the already breaking economy. People use research macros all day every day, researching these cubes simply to turn around and sell them for enormous profit. If you don't believe me go to Chester and have a look at 10 guys standing around the Gogo.
Does everybody benefit from this particular flaw in the system? Sure they do much like everyone benefited from the flaws in the drone system before they fixed that. It's still not ok to do even if it's easy for people to level off of. I thought the point was to fix these flaws, not further exploit them.
I think they should fix this flaw in the mission system before it messes the economy up anymore but I fear the damage has already been done.