One thing that immediately came to mind after reading point 1 was "how is this any different than one craft relying on another crafter/gatherer for mats?" or "how is this different from a crafter relying on DoW/M to get skin from mobs?". The concept itself is nothing new, the means DoW/M is really the only difference... in other words for the crafter, nothing's changed.

You're looking at crafting as though it is the primary focus for something greater than what it is. In 1.0, prior to Yoshi-P taking over, they wanted it to be that way... but that didn't pan out well. It was essentially scrapped, even before the change in leadership. Crafting, despite the interactive/in-depth system for it, is still just a side thing compared to the rest of the game. It will always play a big role for the game, but it will never be on-par to the PvE aspect.