Square Enix, please think about both Casual AND Hardcore crafters..

[Cleanse]

What I believe hardcore crafters want is simply a little challenge at endgame, a few crafts that feel satisfying and test you, after all those hours of grind and leveling and gathering and melds and climbing to the top.

...

We'd like just a small handful of crafts to demand you really meld, work to gather your mats and better have your rotations right. Something you can feel a little pride in having made.

What they need to do, is have a skill handicap for each masterbook recipe.

One recipe you can't use steady hand. Find an alternative skillset such as observe > Focused touch/synth
Another one you can't use manipulation. Use an alternative such as master's mend
Another one you can't use comfort zone. Alternative will be trick's of the trade.

Basically something that makes you approach each recipe differently. Didn't the Ixal beast tribes have some sort of handicap? Can't remember if it was skill or stat...

Let the progression crafting be as easy as is so that people can train their skills and level crafters.

Both sound ideas, but because of the crafter population who can make these vs the demand, would you feel that these could be healthy compromises:
- In order to buy a mastercraft book, you need to do a craft challenge

and / or

- The initial craft of each master item will have a challenge applied to it, after your first successful HQ craft, it becomes a basic craft we're used to. Anyone can NQ them, but in order to unlock the HQ variant, you need to beat the challenge.