Well, this isn't XI. Goldsmithing in 1.x was neither very expensive to level nor did the money it could produce vary much from other crafting jobs like, say, LTW and WVR (two crafts that produce high-demand items for materia conversion). Making HQ gems and rings could turn a profit, but those didn't exactly fly off the shelves.
As always, prices fluctuated due to supply of materials from miners--if you like gathering, mining and botany (mining especially, at least in 1.x, because so many crafts use metals) will be great sources of income and are a lot more, shall I say, relaxed than crafting. The crafting minigame, like in 1.x, can be done on a basic level by just spamming 1 button (I got through so many movies and anime series while leveling crafting in 1.x this way lol), but to actually min/max the minigame for HQ synths really requires your full attention and comes with a high chance of failure (resulting in loss of all your material). Gathering, on the other hand, is pretty laid back; perfect for something to do while chatting, listening to something, etc.
In 1.x it took insane amounts of time. In ARR it looks like it's still going to be more time-consuming than speeding a battle job to cap, but it's far less tedious than in 1.x. I think the crafting needs to be time consuming otherwise everyone and their alt does it and that devalues crafting severely and stagnates the market. Crafting and gathering really shouldn't be made with mass-appeal in mind in a game like this.