One of the advantages to the crafted accessories is that you can meld VIT in a slot which traditionally does not have any (on mage-focused accessories). VIT seems to be heavily underrated here; MND is obviously potent, but VIT is critical. One of our best Turn 5 WHMs runs with nearly 3,800 HP base.

That said, the crafted pieces and materia are a pain to get together. Allagan / AF2 takes a long time to piece together a set; there are alternatives to Darklight from crafting, and some of the stats are not optimal, but it gives you a pretty well-rounded WHM generally speaking. If you have AF2 on the immediate horizon for a slot, I'd skip that DL piece, but I wouldn't just sit on the 60 AK set until AF2 / Allagan.