Gimping yourself in battle content to make it more challenging can't really be used the same way for crafting.
Crafting is procedural, you already know if a rotation is going to work or not, so you either make a rotation that works, or one that doesn't.
Does intentionally failing count as making content challenging?

'Hardcore' crafting ether needs to employ more RNG, which people never like, or more investment. It's that simple.
Make more costly recipes, with higher stat requirements, that require more steps to complete.
Or Recipe's that disqualify certain abilities like Prudent Touch.

Collectibles is probably the best place to work stuff like this into, because of the Collectibility rating.
You could give even greater rewards for even greater ratings. Basically just scale up what Collectibles already have.