I think they are happy with tome item level overlapping leveling gear so it lasts a bit longer at the expense of crafters. I think they will probably keep that formula and giving out the crafted gear freely in quests. There's some small demand for the crafted leveling gear to smash up for desynth skill progress, and glamor purposes for the more interesting looking bits. I can't really think of a great solution because if they made crafted stuff a lot more useful then there would be a different group of people unhappy that they are forced to buy them (or get into crafting themselves).