Despite how time-consuming some of them are, people are still going for them.

I was out at Nophica's Wells the other day leveling my botanist when I realized that there were at least 5 other botanists out there with me... but they weren't level 30 like I was; they were 50. Nothing incredibly rare or expensive comes from those nodes, so they MUST HAVE been grinding for the achievement. It is definitely hard, but doable.

My only complaint about synthesis versus gathering is the fact that the synthesis items are A LOT easier to obtain because the achievements are much less time consuming. You don't have to move and you could "Hasty Hand" yourself through most of the synths... but as a gatherer, you're constantly on the move, and eventually you will run those nodes dry... so it's not even like you can stick with one path and rotate forever. And not only that... you need to gather all 5 ranks in THREE separate lands. If the synthesis requirements were higher, or the gathering requirements were lower, I wouldn't complain... but I do think the differences is a bit unrealistic.

As for the other achievements... 'gillionaire' etc, I think those are fine. People will only achieve them in a few years... and this game has MANY years to go. Don't expect to get them right away.