Wasted Opportunity

If you're an enchanter, you're probably familiar with Enchanting Rods. Sometimes they are difficult to acquire, but if you ask me, they are a very well thought out item. In order for an enchanter to advance in the profession, he needs to get one of these rods. But even before he can do that, a miner has to mine the ore for the rod, the ore then has to be smelted, and a blacksmith has to create the rod. Only then the Enchanter gets to progress to the next level. This encourages trade and cooperation between players, like any MMO with a market should.

However, let's take a look at the other professions. The same miners we just mentioned require mining picks, and Blacksmith require Blacksmith Hammers. It seems ill thought out and very oversimplified that the rest of these profession items are bought from vendors.
Let's take mining for example. There could be different levels of Mining Picks, crafted by Engineers. The reagents for the first one might use some special items dropped by certain mobs. The following versions could use smelted bars. The possibilities are endless. And profession items like there aren't the only ones. What about Alchemy Vials and Tailoring threads.
And why limit this just to professions, what about food/drink that players sometimes buy.
Blizzard missed a big opportunity by trivializing a chunk of the professions.

I said I wouldn't speculate, but I did. Click the picture for link.