Why is Crafting still in the game?

[Felis]

I don't get all the qq about crafting in this game. It's the best crafting in any mmo I've played. I craft because it's like a mini game to me and it's fun to collect and make hq mats and then make hq items to sell or use. There are plenty of things in this game to qq about but crafting isn't one of them in my opinion.

We don't complain about the crafting system.
We complain about the best ilv gear we can craft versus the best ilevel gear we can find in a dungeon.

[Nekodar]

We don't complain about the crafting system.
We complain about the best ilv gear we can craft versus the best ilevel gear we can find in a dungeon.

Compare aquisition time for dungeon gear vs crafted gear in current version (pre-2.2).
i70 crafted HQ with optimal meld vs i90 Allagan or Myth...
If you can afford the i70 crafted, you'll have enough to take on pretty much everything, if you have the skills. With "only" darklight, you'll have a much harder time... But the point here is that you don't have to be lucky with RNG for Allagan, and don't need to farm ad nauseum for myth...
Sure, Allagan and Myth are both in general better than the i70 crafted, but the i70 crafted lets you take on stuff faster than if you have to wait for drops/myth...

Next up we'll have i90 (likely) crafted, HQ with melds that's going to spank the myth/allagan i90, making it easier to take on the new stuff while you gear up to the next top tier...