So basically, for ultimate pve gear, it's pandora < crafted < instance gear?
Basically yes.
The thing is, the difference is not big for 6.x patch, you can do instances with any of them. It matters more if you have +15 than the gear itself. For example legendary gear +15 is going to be better than +5 or more ultimate gear.
Anyway, crafted gear have few of the stats lower than the instance one and Pandora have the same primary stats as crafted but even lower secondary stats (rolled) and lower pve atk/def.
For doing end game instances like PW/Makarna you don't even need ultimate, just highly enchanted legendary. Only for newly added 18 man instance Senekta will need full ultimate but most of the people won't bother with it and you won't miss it anyway.

