I am new to final fantasy 14 and I've been doing research about the different crafting and gathering skills and all but the more I read, the more confused I become. Half the sites O read say to level all gathering/crafting skills to 50, the others says that they are a waste of time and not even worth doing because gear gotten from the raids and what not are better than crafted gear.

I play a gladiator soon to be paladin and before I get any further, can someone explain to me if crafting will be worth looking into doing and if so what should I aim for? And please don't simply tell me "just lvl all of them to 50" that tells me absolutely nothing about the crafting system and how it could benefit me. Any help is appreciated.