Quote Originally Posted by Fagotura View Post
Casual (in terms of raiding) players definitely had a great option in crafting if they didn't want to raid. It took so much time and was so rewarding. You could unironically be a crafter main in HW and maybe SB. It's a whole stream of content that they just gutted completely.

Not everyone wanted to raid and it's OK. I had fun just making Ironworks gear to sell back then because it was so rewarding for the effort you put in. And the system had so much depth that it feels like there is always something new to learn right around the corner.

Even if we reverted back to HW systems I think it's already too late. There are not just crafting simulators now but fully optimal crafting solvers that will find the minimum step rotation.

https://www.raphael-xiv.com/

With some little extra effort you could also easily alter the code to take into account conditions and use that to solve expert recipes for every proc you get.

The sense of discovery is just completely gone now from all the game's content, and it's not just SE's fault but also because the community has grown so reliant on third party tools. There is a counter to this and it's to produce innovative content that people don't know how to optimize yet. But that's probably something you can't expect from SE.
You're hitting a really good point as well. The game in it's infancy didn't even have a party finder yet and it caused people to spend time socially building a reliable party to clear a trial for a relic weapon that only a max level crafter could meld for you. In our tools for convenience, we've become more self reliant and maybe that's not such a good thing.