I actually liked crafting the way it was up until then. It didn't seem any more inaccessible or grindy than it is now. Yes, leveling to 90 is much faster now, but once you hit 90, you still have to gather a bunch of scrips to buy the materia you need to pentameld your gear. On top of that, you have to farm for legendary mats unless you want to be out an arm and a leg. If you think it's not grindy now, then you're not actually trying to craft any high end items from the current expansion.