Excellent quality gear

[Jojoya]

They're pretty unlikely to add another tier of quality to combat gear when that could upset encounter balancing.

I doubt the majority of crafters would consider it more fun. It just adds another layer of steps for players to do before the item is completed. I don't see how going from 25+ steps to 40+ steps to make an item equates to more fun.

It doesn't improve diversity of items in any meaningful way. Instead of focusing on making a HQ item, we'll ignore HQ altogether to focus on making excellent items. If you want to increase diversity of items we can make in a way that's actually interesting, add more items with unique appearances or effects instead of increasing stats.

As Dzian said, we go from making junk or normal to making junk, junk+ or normal. Nothing is gained.

So Collectables, got it

Which isn't really a third tier of quality. It's "craft to get quality as high as possible then decide if you want to toggle on collectible synthesis to get a collectible to turn in at Splendors or leave it to sell to others then complete synthesis". If creating a collectible required different steps instead of just the toggle to switch between quality and collectible rating, then it might feel more like a third tier.

[Canadane]

We had +1, +2, and +3 items/gear in 1.0 (and I guess ffxi lol).
They aren't going to bring that back.