Yeah, and that game was a comlpete success. /endsarcasm
SWG had no raids, who cares. SWTOR has.
To enter a raid/ops and be successful you need something to start off with that is better than your lvl 50 greens. Thats what crafters supply. Its worked in past mmo's and it will work in TOR.
If you only play for the best gear etc, stop crafting and buy your gear from the GTN and start raiding? MMO's are all about progression (timesinks). If crafters could make the best gear, raiders would lose incentive to farm and the game would fail.