Sometimes you won't find any gear upgrades and you'll be stuck using the same gear for several levels, which makes it kinda crappy for what you should be using.
This is what crafted gear is for. Filling the gaps that random loot leaves.
My endgame crafted robes gave something like +3 intelligence, which was a damn sight better than the random collection of stats on my level 14 orange robes I still had. They probably wouldn't have been better than level 21 orange robes, but I never found level 21 orange robes, so that's kind of moot.
