Before you get too excited about inconsistencies, keep in mind that this is a beta game in active development which means bugs and changing designs and well, inconsistencies at times. There used to be some weapon abilities that allowed you to skip tiers. That got patched out. My assumption is that obvious tiers in crafting skills are intended to be similarly required and the devs just haven't gotten around to updating everything yet, but I could be wrong.

( Fwiw, yes, I have made level 50 or 60 max-enchanted armor before. I'm fond of the Animal Nexus and have accumulated quite a few winterprizes as a side effect, so it seems reasonable enough.)