Dark, You're not grounding your explanations in reality.

The truth is when I first started crafting I did make things and I ranked up at the same time.

Cotton Cowls got me through my first ranks as weaver. Rings, circlets and chokers got me up to r15ish goldsmith in no time. I never made 500 of anything.

However all that started breaking down once I got higher, because of the sheer amount of parts that I couldn't make because my rank wasn't high enough or that I didn't have access to the materials. I had hit the point where grinding uselessly was necessary to rank up because crafting, actually making things, was no longer possible!

Had I been ABLE I would have still made things and ranked up. I'm glad they've begun to fix this problem.