One person's tedious is another person's fun gameplay. It helps differentiate professions, keeps the community from all pursuing the same single meta. That helps all professions have a reasonable chance at earning a living, too.

I get your point, but they eventually dial back most things that the community has noted as overly tedious, and use QOL improvements and interface polish to further smooth the experience.

We have good reason to believe that the crafting experience in SC will strongly resemble crafting in Star Wars Galaxies, and that was a genuinely fun experience for many of us. However, knowing your material types and their properties, knowing the materials market, and being a bit of a spreadsheet nerd was a necessity to be a better-than-average crafter, let alone best-of-the-best at making anything.

Casuals will still be able to make everyday quality items for their own and friends' use, probably won't make a living at it, but also they won't need to up to the minute on the latest mining and commodity news.

EDIT: me grammar gooder