1. No. Arena is Comp > Gear > Skill.
2. Crafted gear is not gear for arena. When blizzard allows honor gear grinding through arenas, my bots will be turned off, and I know a large handful of other who will as well. The current PvP grinding system is bogus, especially after the shit blizzard tried to pull with the 371 Vicious following everyone's off season alt grinding for 365. How they can expect anyone to ever farm honor again is beyond me. Thus, I'll continue to stomp nerds at high level play with gear that was handed to me until something changes.