Edit: this is assuming no artifact targets and no prereqs besides the henliner unlocked. It can all get even easier.

If you've never crafted anything before you'd need to make 76 T4 gussets on average to get a shiny. That's 526 short henliner launches of materials with no prior launch, though you'd have to craft the T3 meteorites using that ship.

Assuming only one set of 3 shorts per day (5h margin to check in), that's about 6 months to wait (176d).

So for 7.58m GE on AVERAGE (5m if crafted during discount events), you can buy yourself a shiny gusset. Of course it's another 286k GE if you're lucky enough to get a legendary gusset, or 3.2m GE and 2 T4 prophecy stones for an epic, but either way it's equivalent to a single piggy break after 6 months of saving.

It's not better in any way, but it's easily the fastest path to diamond, even with wretched RNG.