The amount of gil you'd need to throw at 2.x doesn't compare at all to the amount of gil you would need to throw at 3.x. The amount of time you'd need to throw at 2.x doesn't compare at all to the amount of time you would need to throw at 3.x.

Farming for demimateria was not difficult, unless you didn't know to level GSM desynth (and later LTR on vendored gear). And buying them outright still hurt less than buying favor mats and red scrip items outright.

The fact that you can farm for masterbooks with blue scrip farming makes 3.x easier to get to recipes, but mastercraft I books were a macro-able craft. The mastercraft IIIs were difficult crafts made easier by the fact that you got mats back. But mastercraft IIs required some skill to craft, so if you didn't understand high-skilled crafting back then I could see liking scrips more.

Lucis tools were not required for end-game crafting, they just made it easier. You remember being able to do 4* crafts with Supras, right...?