Im 400 armormech now and enjoyed leveling it, I can say that alot of RE gear was quite usefull until i got to the lvl 20, 40, and 50 pvp/pve set. However, during the process of leveling armormech there was nothing really....exciting, or unique to make. Im going to make a comparison to WoW right now so dont let your rage meters go off or accuse me of being a fanboy, because I dont even like WoW but for example-

Engineering could make robots, explosive dummies, dynamite etc. Alot of really cool stuff that made engineering feel like you were a crazy whacked out goblin engineer

Blacksmithing could add sockets to gear, grindstones to enchance weapons etc

Tailoring- Flying carpet?, cloth gear enchancements etc

Things like that to me made crafting unique, and in ADDITION to that you got the passive buff from your gathering skill that increased hp, crit etc, and there were two branches of most crafting skills [ dragonscale leatherworking, weaponsmith etc] . I think it would be a nice addition to the crafting world to have things like that, and hopefully it wouldnt make it harder to level because I loved the sense of not having to uber grind something to level up your crafting skill.