As it currently stands, 2 Star Crafting is behind an enormous wall of unparalleled gating the likes of which we've never seen.
To craft any 2 star item, you first need rare materials or RNG-related materials such as Demimateria as well as 7/8 and 8/8 aetherial reduction mats, and mats from legendary nodes. Now that is about 10 percent of the weight of the total mats. The other 90 percent is locked behind red scrips. So let's now sum up how to get this other 90 percent:
First you need Grandmaster of the Land to even have any hope of gaining red gatherer scrips at a rate close to naught. Before we move further into Gathering Scrips, let's talk about crafting scrips. So you need to craft 20-30 0 star items to get capped on red scrips. Then you can buy 9 tokens max. So what about Gathering? Well you need to get red scrips for favor buffs to get required mats. Except, you can only get 60 scrips an hour with all Gatherers at 60. Then you take these scrips and get your 9 tokens for 9 favor buffs a week.
So you collect the ultra-rare favor mats and take them to Idyllshire. Now you trade your 9 crafting tokens along with these ultra-rare favor mats for anywhere between 27-45 impossibly rare mats. THESE are the mats that make up the other 90%. With the weekly scrip limit you can only craft 2 items with these mats unless you buy them. But these mats are essentially Kingly Whiskers in that they are so incredibly rare in supply that they will sell for millions.
Right, so you can craft 2 items a week but to make any worthwhile profit you'd have to sell these items for over 50 million. This includes battle gear. No, that would be higher because they require more scrips. So you're looking at billions of Gil to buy full unmelded sets for your 8 crafters. And battle gear? No one is going to shell out 60 million for an i180 piece that has the same model as the i160 version.
As it currently stands, I can't enjoy the difficulty and engagement in crafting 2 stars because I'm limited to 2 a week, which I also need myself to gear up rather than sell. Essentially, 2 stars are harder to obtain then i210 gear.
Please fix this Square. Get rid of the weekly limit for scrips or allow DoW / DoM to buy these like in 2.xx. Also, award more red scrips for gatherers because it's painfully low as they are locked via unspoiled nodes. (Seriously? You lock a weekly limit behind an hourly limit?)