Why is crafting/gathering so difficult/grindy?

[Maeka]

Meh. It still doesn't solve the fact it takes hours to gather the materials needed to craft one single item, and the fact I don't have that kind of time very often, nor do I want to spend the ridiculous amount of time running all over Ishgard trying to gather up 30 some materials to put into a single item that yields jack all for rewards when turned in for a levequest.

I suppose, however I could see if I could at least get this stupid carpenter's quest off me that wants the HQ bow..

UPDATE: Got a couple ideas from that guide, but they mention having far higher CP than I do... though I did manage to HQ that bow and can HQ Lv50 stuff comfortably, and Lv51 stuff sometimes if I have HQ materials. Still seems far harder than it should be, though. Needing food, lots of melds, and junk like that just to do stuff like the basic crafting quests...

I suppose I could do some blue scrips, got nothing else to do while I wait for Moogles to level me to 60. Might have half of my tools by then lol. At least they are slightly better than Lv62 tools.