This is basically the reason why I turned to gathering in 3.x even if I was an omnicrafter in 2.x. Crafting now requires insane investment (either time if you gather the stuff yourself or gil if you just buy the mats), reward is too little too late when compared to the risk of losing everything because no "good" procs/failed HT/failed reclaim, especially since you can just take your time and gear up using ilvl180 equipment...not to mention that you should spend millions in tier V materia melding to actually have a better version of ilvl180 gear.
ilvl170 crafting gear is simply the new frontier of glamours (ppl craft those because they are dyeable).
I agree, we should have a mercy rule, but I'm not expecting much from SE at this point.