The 170 gear and accessories are of course better ->only IF<- you have the money and the materias to meld and overmeld. The 180 gear is not bad AT ALL. my BSM got all the ilvl 180 gear (I'm gonna get the MH too) and I craft comfortably . The key point in crafting in HW is that you must have the CP, as the durability bar has been increased and you need as many HT in order to get HQ (unless you got all mats in HQ) that means using WN2 and MM2.

In my opinion the best way to go for gearing , effective and CHEAPER will be :

MH ilvl180 (+4 cp included)
OH ilvl170
Head / body / hands ilvl180 (+4 cp included)
Belt ilvl170
Legs / feet / accessories ilvl170

Like that you will have optimal Cp for an easy craft as every piece will have +4 cp and you will spend less money buying materias and melding those extra 4 pieces This is the way I go about it and it works perfectly for me.