Sometimes I feel like I am playing “go ask mom” “go ask dad”. Here is my in-depth analysis of the forge system (specifically the OP AoE boon) and you will see that I agree with you that it is another avenue to address this issue.
But you will also see the same response from players that they do not want anything to change in that system. So we must look elsewhere for a way to address the problem and that leads us here to this thread, seeing if adjusting the recipes is a way. Looks like no.
There is always at least one person in these threads making strong cases against my suggestions and this thread is no exception. The prevailing trend though is that players prefer to solve issues like these by charging forward instead of correcting past mistakes.
My warning with leaving this as the only option is now we are trading in our most precious resource: developer time. If we need more recipes and more features to course correct, that will come at the expense of some other new feature we may want.
While some players only see my suggestions as nerfs, they overlook the ease of implementing them. They are designed that way on purpose, to try and address the problem without spending too much of the developer’s time.