"Newbie" question

[Silverbane]

I'm noticing now that my CRP is 51 and my ALC is 50-- is one level really what's breaking the calculations behind the scenes in order to make this go so smoothly on CRP, but make me work so freakin' hard on ALC?

That's it exactly.

In post-Heavensward Eorzea, recipe difficulty is ordered like this:
L50 --- your ALC
L50 1-Star
L50 2-Star == L51 or so, your CRP
L50 3-Star
L50 4-Star == L53

So in ALC you were doing a recipe that is higher level than the class, and in CRP you were doing a recipe lower level than the class. It makes a huge difference here, because a 1 Star recipe is effectively 5 levels higher than a no-star.

One solution: go do a GC turn-in and a few leves and get to 51 on your ALC.