I could make some big long speel about the new tank classes like rouge, NotIllidan warlocks, furries pre-later raid phases, the guys pretending to be tanks to get their retribution gear, and the guys pretending to be tanks to get their enhancement gear.
But I play it straight, will later phases have professions doling out new gear specifically for tanking on classes that don’t traditionally tank? Will leatherworking see gear for rogue tanks / shaman tanks, tailoring for warlock tanks, ect? These are fairly substantial time (gold) investments to dump into and, ultimately, there is no realistic gear options in classic / vanilla WoW that would aid a rogue tank in +defense or what have you.
As it stands, the BFD functionality of making crafted gear with raid drops into some BiS or very strong BoP gear does make the other professions attractive options, but if they offer some manner of tank gear for non-traditional tanks, especially if they are BoP upgrades or what have you, then knowing now would be immense help to potential future tanking endeavors since that profession will effectively be necessary for proper tanking at 40 / 50 / 60.
Yours truly, Bazonkers.
P.S. Please give Hunters a BM styled tank setup where they meld with their pet to become tanks like some kind of meme digimon shenanigans. (lol hunters)