I don't particularly like crafting.
In general, the core gameplay loop of the game is to go on an adventure. Adventures is where the gameplay is. As a result, the game should, to an almost unreasonable and certainly unrealistic degree, funnel the PCs into going on adventures. You want to save the world? Go on an adventure. Want to help your friends? Go on an adventure. Want to be powerful? Adventure. Famous? Adventure. Rich? Adventure. The default solution to all problems that the PCs face in D&D should be: Go. On. An. Adventure.
This is a big part of the reason why, in spite of the fact that gold is often a reward, that gold sucks. Buying things is not much of an adventure, and buying things off a chart in a book even less so. So beyond some relatively minor upgrades in armor, you generally can't turn gold directly into character power in the game. It's intentional. The things the PCs want might exist in towns, but they're readily available in dungeons or in the wilderness. Because, again, that's the game. 3e tried to make rewards more or less fungible, but it didn't really work because there are some magic items that are just much better than others and pricing items out is really hard.
So, I don't like it when the PCs start buying things like they're buying lunch at McDonald's. There are things that I think are fine like that. Mundane or silver weapons and armor. Healing potions. Scrolls or other consumables to a limited extent. But I don't think that PCs should be able to just walk into town and buy things more complex than that in general with just gold. The materials to make them aren't readily available.
All that is to say that it doesn't really bother me that there's nothing to do with gold in the game. I don't think the game needs to have gold sinks added to it. I don't think letting the PCs have extreme wealth is bad when to get anything done they still have to go on adventures. I think, "You've got more than enough gold to retire on," is perfectly fine.
