Right....

"Crete was not worth the toll..."

Well it did deprive the Allies of an air base within range of the Polesti oilfields. Well worth the casualties in those terms. The result of the casualties was due in no small part to British ULTRA intercepts tha gave the date of the operation. The majrity of casualties were incurred during the first drops onto prepared positions, although the flaws in the German airborne arm certainly contributed.

As for Malta being easier to take their is some dispute over this, as its defenes were numerous but known to the Germans, many of the positions on Crete were unknown due to lack of recon and intel.

After Crete the 7th Flieger division was in bad shape but it soon came up to full strength but never regained the level of 'airborne' experience it once possessed. As the Fallschirmjager grew the airborne role decreased, but it is wrong to state that no other airborne assaults occured, for examples...

Leros 1943
Sicily 1943
Gran Sasso 1943
Drvar 1944
Bordeaux 1944
Operation Strosser 1944

There are also numerous incidents of troops and equipment being supplied by gliders and parachute as late as Breslau in 45. After Crete the FAllschirmjager grew and were never underestimated. Crete merely stopped strategic airborne operations from being carried out as germany suffered far too many losses in the transport fleet in 40-41 to risk anything but tactical ops, and also the overal strategic situation demanded less and less opportunity for airborne strategic ops, that by 42, the Germans were incapable of conducting. But paradoxiacally after Crete the Fallschirmjager become the most trusted of soldiers, Hitler even placing them over the Waffen-SS and their actions at places like Ortona and Monte Cassino show they were never underestimated and rarely outfought.

__________________
"Watch that Fu*ker, he'll 'ave someones eye out!" King Harold at Hastings 1066.