Sorry if my post offended anyone. I realize I'm a little late, but I had another one of those "wake up and see the glares" afternoons so late it is.
Gulnyr, Dorg, and myself all suffer from the "matter-of-fact" and "clarification" bug, also known as the Wet-Blanket Syndrome, which is commonly confused with the I-Hate-You-And-Your-Stupid-Idea Plague. I don't think I've ever seen extreme hostility from either of them, just misunderstood honesty. I think I've been outright hostile one time in the entire time I've been here, and I left the post there and took a deep breath and explained why I had said everything below it and apologized. It happens.
Not to speak for either of them, but as far as I can read, each of us were only pointing out the problems with the implementation in the original example. I also explained in my post that a free bonus with no cost to the character was a problem, and never going to happen, and expressed my discomfort with the fact that mass-producing crafters may already be masters in many crafts AND still high level characters, because it costs nothing but time. No feats, no skills... just "do you have the time to sink into gathering the resources." In cases of groups, often the resources are there already...and most of the implementations I thought of for this just seemed to help that along, which is kind of depressing. Not trying to be hostile...just call it as I see it.
If everyone who knew why it wasn't going to work as stated were silent, all you would have are "oh that's a good idea!" "nice!" "perfect!" which are good for the ego*, but frustrating when everyone seems to agree but... nothing ever happens. I like to express my doubts up front, and try to find better solutions.
I considered the original post, because I've thought of the same thing before, and could not find any implementations of the idea that did not make me cringe. Starting at higher level, hard and unlikely. Focus feat at any time, cringe for me because you can take it with multiple crafts and after only a day in the smithy, when the original point was to represent prior extensive training. Background feat, ideal in my opinion but not feasible unless a new method of creating characters is implemented (seriously doubt it.)
If I thought it was stupid and just to gain free stuff, I wouldn't have bothered posting or giving an example of how I would've liked to do it, were it possible.
To risk further honesty, I'm ambivalent at best when it comes to the current crafting system, so when I look at new bonuses to be added to it, there is some difficulty for me in trying to find a happy medium, and I'm not even the one responsible for it.
The comparisons weren't really that ridiculous, but it's a little late to go back and explain everything when it's mostly been covered, heh.
*For the sake of clarification, please note that I am not suggesting anyone here wishes only praise for the sake of their ego; I am aware the point was to discuss. I was just stating the fact that it IS good for the ego, but ultimately disappointing if the problems weren't brought up.
