I believe that this will be a good thing for the game - as a whole. I haven't read the whole thread, but I did notice mention of Star Wars Galaxies and the NGE in relation to the changes. However, the crafting in Star Wars Galaxies was actually relatively simple - it was a host of different quality/types of materials and ability that went into creating good items. (As an example 'Radioactive' was one of the possible types, but it had various types and quality of material with different properties).

I don't think FFXIV will be going down that path. I do believe however that customisation of gear (creating if for certain classes for example) will make it so that rather than 'Crafting' being completely about the act of crafting, it will be much more about the market and selling of your goods. This is rather like gathering at the moment, as the entire game plan for it (if you are not gathering purely for yourself) is to make your time worth Gil, which you then obviously exchange for items in the end.

To be honest, I've never been into crafting in *any* game outside of Star Wars Galaxies, as too often it is a lot of work with very little feeling of having accomplished anything (in this, I can never quite make anything worth selling, in WoW etc nothing is worth selling until max rank, and even then...). My favourite thing is knowing that someone, somewhere has bought my stuff and is now using it. The idea of crafting sleeves isn't quite so exciting!

The other side I see to this, is lowering the number of different items that are floating about in the game and on your person. It is currently somewhat ridiculous to say the least (as a Rank 44 Botanist, I know some of the pain) - and this in turn means that you then have more space in your inventory for the things you want to keep.

I'm definitely going to give it a chance, I didn't believe that the combat changes were necessary, but already with the implementation of auto-attack and clearer aggro, I'm enjoying it a whole lot more. It's all part of the plan!