I don't really care tbh. I leveled my crafters because I like crafting and i don't seek to make money with it. I think a game that needs to force people to interact doesn't have a good idea of what an MMO is. It doesn't mean that you have to be forced CONSTANTLY to group with people (as DF does already if you want to get exp from a dungeon). Not forcing people to group every time they are online doesn't mean people won't group. It gives people the choice, which is the best they can do.

As for the NPC, I believe it should have a 30-50% failure rate and be a gil sink. People want to be lazy? Pay for it.