Crafting is a huge investment. Most people see the cost associated with professional crafting then end up looking the other way. Sure, it is extremely expensive (depending on which craft you choose) but once you gather a mass amount of materials (or buy for cheap) and go on a crafting spree you can possibly double or triple your investment. the most amount of alz i've ever lost on a failed mass craft is 800-1b range and the most I have ever made is 16b.
---- back to the original point. Professional craft is far from dead, in my opinion. You should spread this news so I can buy more 10k craft chars for cheap and take over the market.