Why do you need to put crafters' gears being seperate again?

[Snugglebutt]

On a related note, wasn't the point of Specialization that you could do endgame crafting for one class without leveling/melding every class?

Specialization is to promote cooperation with others to achieve your crafting goals instead of everyone just omni-crafting in a similar sense to how FC crafting has now done the same in that regard getting most people to cooperate instead of only thinking of themselves for just personal gain. It does not completely eradicate omni-crafting as people will always find ways around things but specialization does push people to work together even if it cannot force people to do so.

You can still gather most materials in game without specializing but you cannot get everything without personal cost, SE are trying to promote cooperation and relying on others to share burdens like with FC crafting and specializations. Personally I consider specialization a very good thing in the long term for the community, they still need to work out some kinks in the system but things will improve along with ever more specialization recipes as time goes on then so things will turn out potentially for the better in the long run.