Agreed with you. For accessories, yes penta meld is better, in terms of stats. But for stuff that have def, dmg, no.
Then again... there are no i90 accessories :(
Printable View
Turns 1 - 5 weekly lockout removed, nerfed. (i90 stuff)
Turns 6 - 9 Locked out weekly. (i110 stuff)
Personally I don't buy crafted stuff because it is too expensive but I know the myth mats, and other materials to create it are also just as expensive. I agree with crafting should never be better or equal to raid gear, which is why it should turn into a role focused around the glamour system including bardings (I would love an ifrit barding), and other character/chocobo/misc items.
It's also just the gil flow has shot-up like crazy, between the six-fold increase to duty-finder bonuses and the 50k a week you can make from the Challenge Log, so there's been quite a bit of inflation. Unfortunately it's a pretty uneven flow since duty-finder bonuses so heavily favour tanks and healers.
For DPS it matters not at all; you shouldn't be getting hit by anything but unavoidables, and those are more an HP check rather than a defense check. If you need that extra 2 points of defense (or however much it is) to survive...you're a bad DPS...
While it would matter for tanks, getting extra mitigation uses can potentially outweigh that cost. Testing would be needed to see if it is worth it or not (but, since you can clear T9 with <i100, I can't say it matters much)
Of course, the Defences on the gear from coil is far superior and out-weighs this quick little theory of mine, but it's just proof of concept that item melds can be better than coil gear to a certain extent.
For DPS, defenses means... Nothing, and we just need enough Vitality to survive hits
EDIT:
Bingo
Craft gear as a (nearly) equal alternative to dungeon gear should be considered, with Materia being the great equalizer. I don't necessarily want the craft gear to be better than the dungeon gear out of the gate, but it should be good enough to where Materia can make it practically as good if you overmeld. It would cater to a wider variation of playstyles, too, instead of everyone building their characters exactly the same.