Regarding the glow in pre-ARR crafting

[Yellow]

I started crafting again recently and I've realised that the glow of the craft actually means something now.. or at least it's more apparent.

What I've never understood (and doesn't particularly matter anymore) is what was the purpose of the different glows when crafting in 1.0? All I could remember was that I seemed to fail more often when the glow was rainbow/unstable, and when it was gold it appeared to be more successful.

Does anyone know if it meant anything, or if my experiences were just a coincidence? It's something I've never known the answer to and I can't find anything online that knows as well.

[Canadane]

More or less what it means now.
You could get critical quality (and if memory serves, even progress) depending on it's state. There was also less quality/progress if it was in a bad state, and had a higher chance to fail, since the skills themselves didn't decide the success rate.

[Gilraen]

... since the skills themselves didn't decide the success rate.

Which makes keeping them high all the less sensical. Our stats should mean something more than an unlock...

[Gyson]

Which makes keeping them high all the less sensical. Our stats should mean something more than an unlock...

They do. The amount of progress you make when doing quality and and progression improves depends on those stats. That can have a huge impact of success.