As someone that has every crafter and gatherer to get to 80. I'm thankful it's so much less grindy. Could've seen them keeping the 70-80 a grind and leaving lower lvl stuff speedy though.
I've managed to speed a couple classes up to 60 now, I still have to do all the class quests for each class which takes time etc. As someone working from the ground up the old grind made me feel so done with it all. I have only so much time for these things.