Quote Originally Posted by Evergrey View Post
Personally I don't buy crafted gear because I see no reason as to why I need BiS/high end gear when I am not planning on raiding. It's literally not needed for non-raiders.
I play the normal raids for the gear because I don't have to waste gil on it and I think it's more fun to play than simply craft/buy something from a menu and then have nothing to do strive for/keep me occupied, again.

Getting crafted gear designed for entry-raid levels and not raid is like buying a high spec PC to play 10 year old games.
You might find personal satisfaction of having "great" gear but it's not anywhere needed for the non-raiding content.
The way I see it is character progression is pretty intrinsic regardless of whether you do high-end raiding or not, and gear is one of the key defining factors of this. The normal gear is also as much for casual players doing gearing catch-up as to what it is for high-end raiders that want to raid day 1, the only difference being the latter is generally more lucrative than the former due to the urgency. Some people might grind Normal Mode for it, and that's fine, but when you have a direct comparison like crafted placed up against a weekly gated gearing, then the design choice just strikes me as bizarre, as irrespective of content deficit, people are typically going to go with convenience factor or factor of least resistance.

many, many things in this game go much quicker if you have gear beyond what the minimum asks of you. So yes, you can say it isn't necessary all you like, but it absolutely is practical beyond just "Man I feel good".