If you can craft it, you can convert it to materia eventually( If you have the class for it). Materia = money in the markets. Crafting at that also means you can repair anything, without having to go to town. We'll see after maintenance how well they did lowering the prices of dark matter. What you used as an example, isn't a good example. Low level crafting has been made very accessible, thus low level gear is in the market like crazy. I really appreciate this design, going deeper into the crafting as a goldsmith you are more likely to make good money from mid 20's to 50.

I personaly find the gear obtained through dungeons at lvl 30's to be more interesting and yield better stats than crafted gear. This goes without saying that any dungeon gear might be more fruitful than crafted. Stats vary with dungeon drops. However, converting gear to materia is very important. So the journey to 50 will always wield some sort of benefit as a crafter. I've noticed though that job quests give you a decent weapon, and your choosing of an armor piece. They don't give you a full set though. So even if they do assist you in earning a piece of armor, they don't exactly give you every piece you need to be at your full potential.