your way of thinking is very crafter heavy, I remember people saying this game was way to craft dominant.

Honestly i think its not a bad idea to have some cases where mobs drop items, not everyone is a crafter, and in all honesty, if you are not a crafter, getting an item that you would have to be a crafter to use would suck horribly.

There are other solutions to your prob but, it really doesnt matter because they have decided to change almost every aspect of this game. Any solutions we come up with at this point are based on the old systems, which they are throwing away. When people did that poll and said they wouldnt mind if they drastically changed the world, thats basically what they were asking.
from how it seems now, crafting will be able to enhance items, as well as make them, this opens up having more monster drops, while keeping crafters relevant.
The problem with your idea on wanting everything crafted, is you basically want nothing to drop case, because why would you craft it, if people can get the case version. Just think of it as an enhancement of the vintage system, basically un buffed gear will basically just be crafting item pieces.
As it is the gear isnt really better than what crafters can make at the same level, definately not better than the HQs its more for entertainment, and looks.