If crafting was still inaccessible and difficult like Heavensward Patches, you’d quit

[Avatre]

I'd still play. I didn't craft much back then, since I was still learning it, but if it stayed that way I probably would have kept working at it, slowly getting a better understanding of it, and being able to do the crafts. I probably would also have kept doing what I was doing, which was doing every single craft for each of the classes for completion sake.

[Eriane_Elis]

I miss the time when leveling gathering / crafting was hard. It shouldn't be a walk in the park like it is today. That doesn't mean it's not expensive to equip/overmeld, it's still tens of millions to do but the leveling part is too fast.

[Zsolen]

I miss the time when leveling gathering / crafting was hard. It shouldn't be a walk in the park like it is today. That doesn't mean it's not expensive to equip/overmeld, it's still tens of millions to do but the leveling part is too fast.

It's insane at how much faster is is to level a profession over a job.

[Liam_Harper]

I like crafting that involves time investment and research, but I'll freely admit HW crafting wasn't good. They overdid it. Scrip caps, timed nodes being needed for many leveling crafts, hidden rng materials, limited specialist and desynth and so on.

Sadly, they did what many developers do when they make a mistake and make something too hard, they panicked and did a full U-turn. In my opinion, early Stormblood was when they got crafting just right. It involved some effort but was accessible to anyone and very rewarding. It was a shame when they wrecked that.

[BaconBits]

I would still be here, selling MSQ gear coffers and Eureka items.

[Commander_Justitia]

HW was the last time endgame crafts actually were expensive. The last time you could make gil more easily by crafting, because it was more rng.
Feels like when you say "inaccessible" you mean not very bot/macro friendly.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

Why the hell would I play XIV only to craft?

[Illmaeran]

I played through ARR and all of HW, crafting the whole way. Once I got all my DoH/DoL maxed out and had to chase timed nodes for higher-end stuff I quit trying to make the high-end stuff out of frustration with that system. I kind of regret not pushing through and making a bigger stack of money for the future, but to be completely honest, I prefer crafting the way it is now. We still have to chase the timed nodes for things, but it doesn't seem like the burden it was in HW. The thing that really sucks for me is the small number of people who are essentially controlling the markets on entire DCs. With all the information available and means to optimize gameplay to the nth degree, it's easy to flood a market with cheap mass produced stuff. I've always been a lower, but steady, income rather than big ticket seller so this doesn't significantly impact my bottom line, it just bugs me on principle.

[sharknado]

I find the last two points to be fairly justified at any point in time, but maybe don't add the Firmament, buff exp, and give two freebie beasttribes all in the same expansion.

Firmament is consistent but slow/boring. Beast tribes aren't omnicrafter efficient that much. You get way more from FC daily deliveries as omni, while as limited-jobs crafted beast tribe and leves are much more effective.

Joined in 2021 and did the omnicrafter path using various sources of exp including Firmament. In EW I did craft few 6.0.5 items but mostly tinctures and 35-durability HQ component to sell on the board - first time doing "end game" crafting when it's actually current. IMHO that's not my niche, I rather like crafting some housing or random gear, like I crafted 1-30 gear to all ARR jobs I recently leveled... because HQ lvl 5 weapon is a "must" I also crafted myself alchemy boxes to upgrade ARR warrior class gear to a dyable version and then ARR relic HQ crafts needed at one stage

If SE wants to have good end-game crafted gear and not more and more catchup-like gear that now "everyone" crafted then they would have to differentiate master crafting from non-master crafts. I think that demimateria idea from the past refined into some sort of "power" you store to then use later could be such differentiator. Yet it should not go that crazy to not make things like savage race gated behind high barrier of entry related to player wealth (like in WoW) - more like demimateria from EX trials is used to craft really fancy things.

[TaleraRistain]

Considering I've been crafting and gathering since 2014, nope, wouldn't quit and wouldn't stop crafting and gathering.

I do not mind the changes to make it more accessible in the slightest, though. When it's something a lot do, it will get a lot of love and attention and improvements. And they've started a good trend with the basics being easy and having harder stuff down the line for challenge.