A game designer has a choice - make crafting unpleasant to ensure that few people will tough it out, leaving a real market for those who make it, or make crafting sufficiently accessible that anyone can do it. Blizzard has not only taken the path of accessibility (the last 15 points of blacksmithing notwithstanding), it has added a carrot to the end of the grind in the form of BoP benefits for leveling professions (gear, ring enchants, etc). Why would they do this to the proud, few hardcore crafters?

Time. A painful crafting system, including difficult skillups and the possibility of losing materials in failed crafting attempts, is enough to deter most sensible people from trying. Now, if you're charging a monthly fee for access to an MMORPG, which of the following would you prefer?
A) A crafting system that few can master, with significant reward for those who do?
B) A crafting system that offers an alternate form of solo advancement for every single endgame character, offering every single subscriber another thing to keep them paying for another month instead of running out of content and canceling?

It's not a hard choice.

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