I'd like to hear an argument/defense of why crafted armors and items should be better than found gear.
Very simple: I invest character points into it. If you do not get any return from that, as you do from investing that character points into social, defense, weapon abilities, skills, (etc) - then they are wasted.
If you "pay" for an ability that is not used because stuff you get for free is better, than the buying that ability is pointless. In this case it'd be a feature in the game that should not have been done, as the time put into a worthless (not used) feature should have gotten invested at a better end. Which I find sad.
So: If you pay for it, it must be worth it. To be worth it, the crafted EQ must either be (slightly) better than what you find and/or you can determine exactly what the items are (in contrast to random loot).
Right now you do not even find enough dye in the game to NOT run around with a pink or bright green robe you crafted yourself! So the items do not even have cosmetic customisation - on top of being useless, as what you find anyway is better.
Again, we're only talking about making armour, boots and robes here. Crafting weapons or improving items (including armour) is perfectly fine.
