I know that about a year ago a lot of the craftable components were taken out of tinkering since they were being overmade for XP (like the glass statue of a man).
However, this has limited the spells mages can cast since some of these components are very expensive.
Recommend bringing back that part of tinkering back (and just making the XP miniscule) or lowering the prices on the spell components which can no longer be crafted and have to be purchased.