You're right, Tionese quality gear is the lowest quality of endgame PVE gear, but you probably only need to worry about upgrading it if you want to do group endgame PVE stuff (HM flashpoints and operations). That said, I think it would be rather difficult to improve your gear much without doing group content. It's been a while since I've done the endgame PVE stuff, but I think the only new (and better) gear that you'll be able to acquire without any group play at all would be the Black Hole stuff by earning black hole comms through the new space missions. Even the weekly mission in the Black Hole area on Corellia (that drops BH comms as a reward) requires you to complete a Heroic 4 mission (although this is solo-able for certain classes). You can always buy higher quality augments, other item modifications (barrels, crystals, armorings, etc.), and some pieces of gear (implants and earpieces) off the GTN. But I think this would be a much slower process than acquiring the gear through comms and drops you can earn actually doing the group content.

Are you suggesting that we're getting screwed according to the types of missions that are available for players to run or by the returns on the missions?

It's a preset amount of time...2 minutes per round I believe.

Yes, there are a few gathering skills that you can level rather quickly if you choose. Bioanalysis and Scavenging are the two that come to mind because you can gather from the nodes that spawn in the environment and you can gather from mobs that you kill along the way (creatures for bio and droids for scav). I don't think any of the other gathering skills are going to have quite as many ways to harvest mats. As for how the OP already has 3 skills at 400 while only at level 24: this is relatively easy to do. A lot of people will level a crafting/gathering skill set on an alt without actually leveling the character. This might take a little longer since you probably won't have all your companions available to run missions, but can still be worthwhile.

Same situation for me: main is healer, alt is infiltration shadow. Since my DPS is usually down compared to other classes, I have to play smarter to make up for it.

If the crafter doesn't have a pre-made to trade with you, you can always ask for collateral against your mats in the form of credits. Either send the mats through mail with a COD requirement, or get the money up front during the trade.

Definitely give it a few sessions before going back. It felt weird to me at first as well, but after getting used to it you'll really appreciate having all the keys bound to abilities/macros/etc. Other than putting movement on the thumbstick, I don't have any strong recommendations for you because you really can bind the keys in whatever way you feel comfortable. I personally have have enough key bindings to cover my map, inventory, character sheet, vent PTT, and 20 abilities (using 'shift' as a modifier key). The ability count is probably overkill, but it's what I'm used to. My targeting is bound to my mouse.

I've seen this error at least twice. I was still able to craft recipes even though the crafting window was showing "0" Biometric Crystal Alloy. It must just be a display error of some kind.

Skimmed the thread and only saw people mention losing white crystals. Has this happened with any of the other colors?

Another vote for sticky. Great job OP.

As far as story content goes, most of the FPs I've played have been rather shallow. I'm only level 32 right now (so haven't played all the FPs), but The Esseles is the only one on the Republic side that had any significant dialog options/story to it so far. The Jedi Prisoner mission (Taral V and Maelstrom Prison FPs) looks like it might also have some story to it. As far as gear goes...some of the best pieces I've gotten out of FPs have been oranges. To my understanding, you should be able to keep orange gear on par with most other gear in the game by keeping your upgrades/mods up-to-date. So, if you find an orange piece by questing somewhere else, then you really aren't missing out in that aspect.