Thanks for the feedback. Very useful!
As part of the 0.1 update, I will fix the item issue alongside many other Quality of Life improvements. To address your concerns, the roadmap of features will definitely change after the Smithing Update has landed.
In order to deliver a great crafting experience, I need to introduce some new concepts to make learning "patterns" approachable and immersive. Crafting will be very different from other games where the player "just needs to have the materials". Instead, crafting will be based on knowledge and SKILL. However, to learn patterns, you need to find/discover them within the world. All of that requires a procedurally generated world. All of that I am currently building and will show in more detail in my next devlog.
In the meantime, make sure you read up on the future of cave and join my Discord to get daily updates on the development of the game!