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On an interesting note, at least in all the Dungeon & Paizo APs I've DM'd (4 so far), only wizards have expressed an interest in Craft Wondrous (rightfully so).
And of all those that took it, they happily crafted their +2 stat item somewhere between level 3-5, and maybe bracers or an amulet.
Every one of those players begged to be able to re-train and give up the feat at level 9+ because they realized they'd never have 20 free days to craft a 20,000GP item once the AP main plot-line took hold.
Obviously in some campaigns where months of down-time will exist at high levels, the feat is great.
How I rule this request is a higher level character can start with a maximum number of "crafting days" - maybe it's 10 days, maybe it's 30 days - as a DM you can decide how much equipment you want to allow in at a discount this way. Giving a 10th level wizard a 10,000gp break isn't that big of a deal, especially when he's spent a feat to craft an item he's likely to see drop in one of his next 20 encounters. Plus when you remind the player of this fact, the fact they probably won't get 10 continuous days of crafting until 8 levels pass, the uber-optimizer changes their mind rather quickly.
Crafting an Item is easy, that's true. (But I think crafting magical items via item creation feats is more easy, faster,.. then crafting a weapon via smithing)
But:
1. It takes much time (rules have already been posted on page one of this threat I think).
2. The money you save is only relevant on the first levels in my opinion.
I play a fighter with ranks in crafting armor and crafting weapons.
I started the game with a masterwork greatsword and a masterwork chainmail (and mwk artisan tools). And some other, smaller, cheaper things.
We are now level 4. I still use my mwk Greatsword and the chainmail. The mwk banded mail I am smithing at Oleg's is about halfway done.
The only magic item I have is "amulett of natural armor +1".
The sorcereress in the party got a +2 Cha headthingy, the paladin got a +1 longsword, the bard +1 crossbow etc.
So I don't see how my starting mwk gear damaged (and damages) the "balancing".
To be honest, I more see it as an advantage for the party. I never got the vibe from the other players that they thought themselfs in a disadvantage because I had the gear from the beginning. It was/is more of an advantage for them - We put almost all "treasure money" etc in a "collective purse".
Apart from that, still I think that the time u take for crafting, especially on the first levels and without "wasting" feats on it, takes to much time to really do much until it becomes irrelevant. First levels kind of move fast - and even in Kingmaker, where we got some real downtimes because of the need to stay at the base because we suspected attacks etc, I didn't manage to really craft things. And I did raise the dc on some occations myself to get it done faster etc.
But maybe I have a different viewpoint - a wizard with "scribe scroll" would be allowed to get his scrolls in his starting gear cheaper too..
Many DMs only allow characters starting at above 1st level to spend half their starting wealth on any one item. There might even be a rule about this somewhere.
I'd say that the fact you're crafting doesn't change the fact you can only invest half your wealth in the item, and 600gp isn't enough for an adamantine weapon - problem solved?