Why add the 'off' in the below sentence, it seems unnecessary?
The buyers and sellers, too, many of them, looked not much better off than the poor beasts they were bargaining about.

Question

Answer

because better and better off are not the same.

if we used better here (with looked) it would mean that their appearance was not better than the poor people.

Better off means that their circumstances are better so this sentence, when using better off, means that the buyers and sellers did not appear to be in any better circumstances than the poor beasts  they were bargaining about.

Hope that helps.

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