I don't think they were being harsh. Frankly I'm leveling shield tech myself and I really hadn't considered snaking into the middle tree and then switching specs around 30.

The other flip side to this is that players shouldn't have to depend on player crafters for the best gear. Yes they can farm commendations if they want to and mod up their orange gear. That's great for them. But it's far easier to just hit the GTN and buy the crafted gear outright. 6 months into this game there's zero reason not to spend several K on purple gear on one of your alts and his/her companion when your main is sitting on half a million creds.

For leveling up and using self crafted gear just RE to blue. RE'ing to purple is really for crafters that want to exploit a specific market segment.

10 years ago every single patch with Everquest people would complain that the fizzle rates on spells was increased. Several threads on the subject is pretty meaningless. Humans just aren't good judges on this sort of stuff. It needs math.

Because your maxed out main is sitting on 10 million credits and you want your alt(and all your alt's companions) to be twinked out in the best gear as soon as he levels up. So why grind quests when you can just hit the auction house and buy purples?