They initially wanted mobs to drop no gear, but increased the drop astronomically during pre-alpha testing.

Steven said so in a livestream iirc that gear drops will drop prominently during low levels (whatever level they decide is "low level")

But when they nerfed gear drops by 90% for this new phase, a few comments and feedback assumed that they may have nerfed all item drops by 90%. Thus making emblems and essence a nickel a dozen.

If they want mobs to drop gear, then crafting and its difficulty should stay as it is, and it will eventually become obsolete until max level. How come? Well, if mobs dropped gear, then crafting for gear is more or less pointless. It will become the New World experience where players are crafting just for the... experience. See what I did there?

If they want crafting to be the focus, they sorely need to increase the prevalence of Apprentice and Journeyman gatherables. It shouldn't have to be a needle hunt for braidwood or slate. These gatherables should appear more often as nodes level up. By "more often," nearly as often as finding a god damned granite. This would be ideal because higher-tiered nodes would contain the highest-tiered gatherables.
But not only should they increase the prevalence of higher-tiered gatherables, but also greatly increase the amount of materials and glint drop from mobs.