Well, I know that if data mining is to be believed (it isn't always; the dats support National ranks up to 15, including Jeuno, for example), the craft ranks go Expert > Authority > Luminary > Master > Grandmaster > Legend, capping at 160. Regardless, those ranks are already implemented into the game's data, so who knows? I know Matsui said he'd like to reinvent the crafting system from scratch in an old interview, so maybe we'll get something like what FFXIV has where you can use skills and stuff while crafting, except dumbed down for ps2 ARM code. I think that'd be pretty cool, personally. Although it won't mean much if you can only max 1 craft and synergy requires like 8 people to make "the best stuff."

Crafting will always play second-fiddle to people who "worked super hard on a mission line >" but I think we could stand to have some really awesome stuff from crafting. Maybe that's the direction they'll take with empyrean reforged?