I really don't think there's even an argument to be made here. This isn't even 1 star crafting yet lol. But for the sake of argument we'll pretend it's now easier and not just because it's plain no star crafting.

How about they compromise. Keep everything like it is but add really hard to craft items for housing, clothing, etc which is what they'll do eventually anyway. Or add a "hard mode" button sort of like the synthesis one that makes the gear twice as hard to make and offers a slight bonus or something? Personally I prefer the way crafting is right now. (Remember it's no star crafting) It still takes enough work to do that not everyone wants to bother. I am FINALLY caught up to date on my gear. I haven't been playing since ARR beta or anything and started right after Stormblood came out and there were several humps that were nearly impossible for me to get over. I don't remember which levels they were at - maybe 50 or 60....possibly even that green lv. 70 gear: the Onishi and Nightsteel stuff. I did not have near enough materia to get over that hump nor enough gil to afford the materia and thankfully I found a method online where you can use your specialty class and those delineations to where you can infinitely use Heart of the "class" and Nymeia's wheel to gain back durability allowing you to essentially craft HQ gear from all NQ mats with crap gear lol. It was a pain and a long process but it allowed me to finally get over that hump. I didn't use it for anything else but that because it was too much of a pain. Even when Shadowbringers came out I didn't have full materia in my crafting gear and hardly any in my Gathering gear. Now with this lv. 80 crafting gear I'm finally caught up with most everyone else and can take my time gathering materia in order to stay up to date. It also seems like it's easier now to get crafting materia so that will help too.

Also, the expansion just came out and the crafting will get harder as it goes even with these new seemingly op abilities so keep that in mind. Personally I enjoy crafting but don't want to make a full time job of it. I can understand why some people want it to take more skill but let's be honest. Most people aren't like that. Usually you have a few really good crafters who come up with new ways to craft gear, create macros, do all the number theories stuff while everyone else just gets their gp high enough to copy and paste those macro's. I'm super glad that there's awesome crafters who are able to figure out all the things I can't. You'll make my life much more enjoyable so my thanks to you all.