I guess the "crafting is dead" really means "crafting doesn't make a buttload of gil like it used to". I bought all of my equips for my Culinarian and will continue to do so. HQ when I can find it. I've gone broke buying armor for 3-5k each piece. Someone's making my money, so it can't be but so dead! I've also been too lazy to level botanist, so I buy most of the materials I cook with. Someone's making that money too!

Yes, the undercutting sucks. But we all do it. And if you check back at certain times of the day, the lower priced items are all bought up and you can list you next batch at a more reasonable price. Or just list a normal price in the beginning and people will eventually have no choice but to buy yours after the cheap ones run out. I've seen this time and time again with Knights Bread; One minute it's at 130 and later in the day it's 400.

Are you likely to make a million gil in a day? Nope. But things do add up over time. Look at the big picture. Analogy: You make $11 a hour. That's a yearly income of $22,880. You get a 50 cent raise. Doesn't look like much. But at $11.50 a hour, that's a yearly income of $23,920.