Here's what I think, such as that may be.

In a game where crafting classes and battle classes are supposed to share the same equality, therefore, crafted and raid gear should, all told, be equal (the U/U gear may have 'better optimized' stats, given that it has zero resale value, as opposed to Generic Uber Chestpiece +1). However, if the best raid gear is difficult to obtain, than so, too, should the crafted gear. Perhaps the mats for it should drop in the instances themselves, or be DoL nodes of some sort within the instance that are only available after it's cleared. Also, there's no reason not to have U/U gear be meldable, as the current 'system' removes a major mechanic that SE specifically added to add depth to the game's gearing system and economy.