Quote Originally Posted by tou View Post
l crafting is becoming less valuable as time goes on. I find that SE's vision for crafting is only for vanity gear and furniture. Both of which aren't what most crafters leveled up for. I think that SE is going down the wrong path by not making crafting viable.
This is why you may as well pack up and go home, there was never any intention for crafting to be mainstream, it is just another mini game built specifically not to impact the game to a worthwhile degree.

Confirmed with Disciple of the Hand lead

Currently there are no plans to add any new low/mid level crafting recipes.
We designed FFXIV so that gear obtained from dungeons is more effective than crafted items.

For their first class, players can gain equipment from the main quests so we don't think they should face any problems. But we believe there are other chances to use low-level gear, such as creating materia or equipping them when leveling a second class.