Artificers, cybertechs and biochems have a HUGE source of revenue from 61 mods / enhancements / ears. I sold enhancements and mods for like 20kk net. And now they give a chance to other crafters to earn some. I see this a fair choice.
UPD: Aye forgot about the relics the artificers can craft, too. That's a nice offer to people hating dailies.
In order to learn those 61 mods/enhancements, you have to either 1. Be satisfied with your gear to the point that Blackhole/Campaign is no longer an upgrade for you or 2. Just want to make money and accept that you won't have end game gear for awhile.
Second, it's not even a definite chance that you'll learn the 61 mod/enhancement. Meanwhile, arms/armor/synth are guaranteed to learn their augment kits. They can easily buy the recipes for the augment 22s. And the process of learning the augments don't require expensive Blackhole comms/campaign shells; you can easily get the mats to make the augments that need to be REed.
Third, augmentation kits are useful for any player, regardless of class. At least for 61 mods, they are advanced class specific.
So let's summarize "end game" crafting:
cybertech/artifice process
1. Grind blackhole comms and raid in order to get the mods/enhancements, potentially foregoing your own gear for a chance to make the mod/enhance.
2. Pay to rip it out.
3. Reverse engineer it. You have a 20% chance to learn it. If you don't learn it, tough luck. Back to grinding/raiding, which are subject to lockouts.
4. After the recipe is learned, the mats required are not easily attainable. You are limited by the few mats you can get per week. The other option is to require your customers to provide mats, but they are expensive.
Cybertech/Artifice Limitations
1. Mods are limited to one class, thus limiting your market.
2. Enhancements are limited to role (DPS/Healing/Tanking). Some enhancements have cross over appeal (IE: power/surge can be good for both DPS/Healing). Still, the market is somewhat limited.
3. Materials are very rare. Thus, cybertech/artifice can only make a few at any given time and must charge high prices for it. This limits the market to the few that can afford the prices.
4. 61 PvP mods/enhancements cannot be learned. Rakata/columi/tionese mods/enhancements cannot be learned. 61 armorings (from gear) cannot be learned.
5. The mods/enhancements can be attained via other means (customers can simply get the comms/do their own HM Denova raids)
Arms/armor/synth process
Augments
1. Buy or get the recipe via a crafting mission.
2. Make green augments and RE to blue.
3. Repeat step 2 for blue to purple.
Augmentation Kits
1. AFAIK, train the skill from your trainer
2. Make 10 lvl 49+ greens and RE them
3. Make augmentation kit
Arms/armor/synth Limitations
1. Augments are limited per advanced class. However, because the process of learning the augments is far more simple and attainable, it's a moot point. An arms/armor/synth can easily learn all the augments available to the profession. A cybertech/artifice will take much longer to get all the 61 recipes.
2. Augments are limited by the Advanced Neural Augmentor drop rate. Still, the neural augmentor is much more readily available than grade 8 mats
Arms/armor/synth Benefits
1. Augments have an enormous market as they are universally desirable. Pretty much any 50 wants augments, regardless of where they are in terms of their FP/Ops experience. While every 50 may not be able to augment all 14 slots in 1.3 right away, the fact that augmentation kits and augments are at a lower price than a 61 mod/enhancement means that more people can (and will) buy them.
2. Augments are not limited to the PvE markets; any serious PvPer will want a full set of augmented gear as well. Cybertechs/Artifice can't even touch this market as we can't make any PvP mods/enhancements.
3. Augments can be attained ONLY through crafting. There is no other way.
I'm not saying that 61 mods/enhancements should be easy to get...they should be rare. But that doesn't change the fact that Cybertechs/Artifice have almost no "easily attainable" and mass marketable items to sell to the population.
I understand that Bioware wanted to limit the amount of available augmentation kits, but the fact is that they chose the wrong professions to make them. I don't see how it's balanced that the same professions that can make the augmentation kits are also the ones that make the very augments that go in them. Bioware could have achieved the goal of limiting available augmentation kits by giving the recipe to the professions unable to make the individual augments (cybertech/artifice/biochem) and ended up with a better balance.