Thats how ALL gather professions work i'm afraid.
You will get gathering specific clothing that makes you better at it. As well as skills.

All gather nodes early on...are in areas you wont agro monsters. Higher level areas might..but by then you will learn a stealth ability.

Also...if you create gear sets...you can toggle back to your main classes at any time. So even if you do agro...you can fight them off. (disclaimer...switching back to a combat class has all your combat skills on cooldown for like 30 seconds or something)