The main issue with HW crafted gear is that is was made as "catch-up gear" that required twice as much time/effort as upgraded Law gear, on a weekly lockout system. Sure it's marginally better due to the materia slots, but secondary stats took a huge hit and TV materia is almost non-existent.

So who exactly is the target market for this gear? Someone with a ton of gil, who has the patience to wait a couple weeks until crafters are capable of making it, but doesn't have the patience to take the time to gear up the easy way. That's a very tiny market.