It doesn't sound like the issue is about how to level, or about there being too much to do before being able to reach the new gathering nodes. It's about the pattern. It's about not being able to get item X until you've already passed the point where item X would have been useful to you. That's just bad design.

People (those who have any interest in gathering / crafting) should be able to first gather items, then use them to make gear, then do the content where they'd wear that gear. If you have to have already passed the content where you'd want the gear before you can gather/make it, then what's the point of ever making it at all? Sure, lots of players go back later to progress crafting and gathering just for the heck of it, but the biggest incentive and reward for doing so is already moot.