I think it all depends on your perspective, as in my last full play-though I ran out of SGS Credits, and didnt want to spend all of my whatever the other currency was called on TnT and the such. So, I started Making armour suits out of the Mutant Dog leather, Rathound and the such to pay for my Addictions to Snorting TnT and Hex (Well, the Vendors musta seen it like that xD) it worked pretty well, as once you factor in the effort of finding the animal, killing him, ammunition cost, Medical Cost and your own time it works out pretty well, crafting for profit.
Now, adding in Padding and the such did really help make more cash, once a Degradation system is all balanced out I think it will all be good, of course it wont be instantly Awesome, but it will get balanced out more at some later stage I would think.