It's all down to "effort". If going through all the crafting "treadmill" is significantly easier than grinding out raid/veteran gear, and for better stats, then no, i dont agree that crafting should be the source of the best gear.

All things being equal effort/time sink wise, then i think the high end gear from both should be equal as well.

Well honestly the system presented needs some changes. Personally I would prefer the unique enchantments on drop sets to be better balanced against crafted ones. That way neither is better, while providing players more options. I would also tweak the upgrading system to also require that the crafter be able to craft that level of item in the first place. I would also like it if players can't max crafting skills by breaking down items. Also I would prefer if players couldn't just respect points into crafting whenever they want to, that way dedicated crafters might be revered a bit.

Seriously, this whole crafted gear vs. dropped gear debate about which should be better is dumb. Crafters should be able to research EVERY trait and set bonus in the game, so they can make identical items to dropped gear. The only differences would be:

Appearance -- Dropped gear would not be able to have it's appearance changed. A crafter who researches the traits and set bonuses of that gear can decide to make that item in the different racial appearances they have access to.

That's it. Simple. Clean. Done.