Raiding for better gear to raid harder stuff is a cycle we've seen a lot. A broad feeling is that dropping materials to give to a crafter to get your gear slows and diminishes the reward and doesn't benefit things any. Honestly Wildstar's crafting was some of the best crafting I've seen. It was moderately skill based, made better materials important, allowed for alternate material components and allowed you to tweak the stats. So if someone wanted a specific stat distribution they could get it made that way, but a better crafter might make the stats better.
I'm still looking for a game that actually makes crafting skill-based and a good crafter better than an average one given the same gear and level or w/e. Until that happens crafters will always be an after thought.
That's just an endless cycle of adding new difficulties if you don't address power creep or balance.