Ok, let’s begin by saying that I’d like to have a crafting overhaul and all BUT I know how much a lot of people would dislike that given the amount of gold/time invested in the current skill progression.
So what I’d like to propose is with the new map expansion or in the next GS bump make so crafting can go to 300 or similar BUT only for like 2 professions chosen by the player, this way you HAVE to buy crafted items made by other players because rn you can just level all professions and farm everything and never buys anything from anyone, which in a player-driven economy is a big problem.
Now, since the player will focus only on two professions these professions must be useful so people don’t feel like losing anything, so make something like armorsmith/weaponsmith/arcana/engineering can re-roll some gear perks or the whole gear with the same GS, that furnishing can have extra trophies in their houses, this kinda stuff. So you feel like, more than only new craftable items for that profession, you’re getting something.
However, I don’t think people wouldn’t feel like their investment in the other professions during these unworth crafting times would pay up, and that’s where the real change would come. Depending on your profession you’d also get some kind of passive bonus related. Let’s say that you are an armorsmith, you could get a passive X% armor bonus, or your trophies could give a higher bonus if you were a furnishing crafter. But those bonuses would only work for you, so kind of a passive account bonus.
I feel that this way I could focus on how I like to play and the chosen professions would reflect that, so a hard PVE player that likes to farm would choose furnishing for instance, while PVP players would focus on getting armorsmith or arcana.
Yes, that approach may have some drawbacks like disincentivizing people to change gameplay (assuming that long-range physical weapons would be tied to engineering and some melee to weaponsmith), so maybe a way to change their choices could be implemented.
I think that this could help to put in motion the current (stale) economy and make us feel like the professions are worth of our time and gold invested.