Crafting should be a stepping stone to get what you want and not a parallel gearing path in terms of what a raid boss drops. I personally dont want to spend a month slamming my dick in the door to kill Heroic Garrosh only for a crafting component to drop. Its just not epic, fun or encouraging. Nine out of ten times it seems that crafters just want to be the people that other people have to answer to in an MMO and be popular based on their repertoire of recipes. I personally dont want to answer to anybody else on top of the shit I have to put up with to get the drops in the first place.
The Epics (EQ) and Legendary (WoW) items that were brought up just arent in a comparable aspect to the conversation. They are one off items that are defining and deservedly so since those items will be immune to upgrades for at least 2 tiers. Im fine with crafters being involved in this process, but only to an extent. Such as the Rebreather for the Warrior Epic. The rebreather wasnt something major and could be made by a relatively low end crafter. (...and it wouldnt break the fucking bank, either.)
But all to often Devs force crafters down raiders throats by not only allowing only one or two professions on your character, but by needing 3 or more. Each time needing an item that is an obscenely large gold sink in some regard. Much less, since that Crafter has to be a special little snow flake that everyone comes to - that recipe is ultra rare as well. That shit is just nonsense and makes me hate crafters that much more.
Ideally, I would understand a gearing process that was similar to how early Molten Core was done. You had the option of spending a ton of time farming items that had fire resistance - or someone in your guild could quickly level crafting and make that fire resistance gear after having enough faction for everyone. Once the raider people were decked out in fire resist gear - then they could kill the raid bosses that dropped the gear that would be BiS or at least close to.
Or, if you want to use EverQuest, fine - Temple of Veeshan, Giant Faction. You got a piece of Ancient Relic Gear from random trash mobs in ToV and went and turned that piece in at Kael to an NPC with a couple gems and you got what you wanted. They could have easily just made the recipes purchasable with appropriate faction with low skill needed and then a Crafter could make the gear. But the reason I bring this up is because this gear was a stepping stone to better gear. It was great gear that got your character ready for the bigger fights that would net you the best in slot items. Though, I liked my Cobalt more...
Both solid examples of how Crafters and Raiders could get along quite well without having a First Kill, server first, w/e tarnished by a Crafting Component drop. Some of you may get off on it, but Im pretty sure there is a much bigger group of people that just want the fucking item right then and there.