I mean no disrespect to the developers, nor to my fellow crafters, but really? Does the time devoted / reward ratio = or surpass that of the folks who grab better gear sets via drop?
I've never agreed that crafters should be able to create the absolute best armor or weapons in the game. I do agree that time devoted should equal the reward but feel that adventuring takes more time than crafting. Most of the dropped sets that you mentioned are not easy to obtain and take many, many runs to get the pieces (if you ever get them).
Seriously, leveling crafting other than enchanting can be done as an afterthought. The "skill" to crafting involves standing in front of a crafting station and hitting "R" a couple hundred times. The time it takes to research traits involves nothing more than waiting for one to finish before starting another. You get free mats simply by putting a few points in a hireling.
If you look at it from a risk/reward standpoint or even the amount of effort involved, than crafting should never match dropped sets.
Having said that, most people are running with crafted sets. Even the people that manage to get the rare 5 piece dropped sets still craft 3 piece sets.