The game provides all the gear you will need for your first class / job. Some of the gear (mostly right side jewelery) is hidden behind side quests. From lv1 - 49, you can get better gear from crafting HQ than the game provides but this usually accounts for like 2-3 stat points per gear piece which is pretty insignificant.

That being said, when I played the game, I levelled all my crafter / gathers / and multiple DoW/DoM at the same time. I wanted to try everything. I was 100% self sufficient until I was forced to do party content near the end game to advance my character. Would I do it the same again? I would power one DoW /DoM with the MSQ, then every 10 levels or so I would catch up my DoH / DoLs. If I left them until I reached 70, it would feel like such a daunting task that I would not do it.

I love the crafting mini-game. Crafting and Gathering does take time. The carrot of optional near self-sufficiency at the end is pretty great though.