Quote:The economics mean it couldn't really be any other way, since if something was profitable to make everyone would make it until it wasn't any more.
This isn't completely true
Some things that are profitable to make are controlled by rare or hard to get recipes or materials. These have tended to be money-spinners (the +3% to hit scope is a good example of this)
With regard to jewelcrafting my friend is making money crafting gems to order. Someone will ask for a gem, he'll see if it's on the AH, add a premium, ask if they want it and if they do, buy it out, craft the jewel and sell it to them for the agreed profit
He makes quite a lot of money doing that, he prospects his ores I think to provide a better service and cover supply shortages so for him prospecting as part of supporting his reputation as a good jewelcrafter is worth the loss of short term revenue that he suffers because he is not selling his ores
I would also make the point that in other MMOs crafting has been handled differently and has been more successful in promoting a genuine economy. In SWG for instance crafting cost you skill points so that if you were a top crafter you weren't a top pvper/healer or whatever. In return for this sacrifice you had the opportunity to make items which were better than pve-obtained loot. Of course people who built their characters to kill stuff complained bitterly about rip-off wealthy crafters and so forth.
WoW's system suits its demographic: simple, undemanding, available to everyone, but with just a glimmer of hope that you may in some way become better than everything else. Everything in WoW is designed for this demographic tbh