Not True. I craft my gear and then roll and augment it, creating a good set takes time, plus "any yellow" ? No, I have my different sets for different purposes, a winter set, a regular set, etc. I even used to have a separate movement speed set, but they take too much inventory slots.
I don't want any other effects on the crafted gear, want MOAR damage! Ofc builds are somewhat broken, it's still beta, everything will be tuned, but it makes no sense in any game, IF the crafted gear is inferior, makes crafting dead. And combat refresh itself is very important, saves my ass a lot during the fights in Gaz.
No, I got it right, it's my experience in games. You want unique items as in an item that would enable and allow you to create a build around it. It's a question of balance, if the item and the build are not good enough, no one will bother, if it's too good, someone will optimize it and everyone will run it. And a month later you'll have some "artifacts/uniques/whatevername" that go together, synergize very well and there is no telling if the build will turn out to be overpowered as hell... At least atm we have a choice of abilities we want to have mods for and play.
Moreover, in your example, you just want a new combat combat skill, like a pyromania(c), setting everything on fire with some large aoe fire abilites, but it'll be created with an item, not a skill itself. So, from the standpoint of a general game design, depending on your creativity and the item, it could be a lot of work to introduce some new mechanics into the game. And it'll either be overpowered or not a single player will be using it. Not a single player means not a single player, because, even if you're a fan, you will hit a wall sooner or later, like say, a monster with lots of fire resistance or immunity, so you'll change your build to something more effective and as you and the game move forward, you'll never go back to that particular pyromaniac build. Is it even worth the effort to create something like that?
I think that having a current system with skills and mods for their abilities is a good game design for the developer, makes it's easier to look after and introduce new builds. There is a good reason we are able to run 2 combat skills at once (even 3 with a crossbow) using different kinds of damage, even the physical only is piercing, slashing, crushing...
P.S. What you guys are talking about reminds me of games like Diablo 3 and POE.. and even a bit UO since the AOS. And in all of those games, except POE, crafting is just useless and dead. One may argue that it's dead is POE too, as you can just buy the items off the market.