The ink used for the runes (“tincture”) attracts the Aether’s attention whenever it is moved (accelerated/decelerated). You don’t want to waste the Aether’s attention, that will make it grumpy. People don’t understand anything about the Aether yet, so they mostly noticed that it seems to be impossible to “mass”-manufacture and then distribute the tincture needed, because some kind of catastrophe will always happen if this is tried.

Instead, clever chemists have found decently long-lived precursor substances you can carry on your person and then mix when you need it. It’s those precursor substances that get “mass”-produced and moved about and are very regulated. But they’re fairly easy to make if you don’t care about laws.