Back when crafting was still relevant there were too many crafting items that were used in only 1 recipe. If you combine that with the fact that anybody could take up a trade skill and most crafted goods could be sold again and again on the AH it's no wonder why crafting turned out the way it did. If more of the items in the game had to go through more recipes to get to their end results, more items bound to players after being used and more salvage like turn in trials existed we would probably have a more exciting economy.