It was definitely a deliberate choice by paizo to make crafting's rate match up with earn income, even at the expense of realism (for example, as a chemist, I can tell you it does not take days to weeks to make a flask sized container of acid). That said, there still are monetary and roleplaying boons for crafting, should you choose to invest in it.
Money wise, when you are crafting an item, you are always earning your maximum possible income, you're just putting it towards your equipment rather than your pocketbook. Using Earn Income restricts you to they types of jobs available. For example, if I'm playing a level 6 character and I visit a small town, I might only be able to find level 2 jobs for my Academia Lore skill to teach people about the fundamentals of magic, or I could earn the equivalent of a level 6 job by crafting myself a new piece of magical gear.
Roleplay wise, if you're in a game in which the market doesn't always have everything you want to buy readily available, crafting lifts those restrictions. The idea of "ye olde magick shoppe" doesn't jive well with some people, and in those types of settings, crafting is extremely helpful for getting the specific gear you want.
All in all, crafting does have legitimate benefits, but it depends a lot on your game setting. You will need to have a good amount of downtime to see benefit from this skill. The financial benefits you reap are based heavily on how much the DM regulates the job and item markets. If your DM makes it so that anyone can get to max level jobs without sweating the details, you're better off using Additional Lore to get an automatically maxed out lore skill for earning income if money is your main concern; if they follow the recommended guidelines for finding a job, you'll be earning significantly more money by crafting gear vs earning income as you advance in proficiency. If you're in a setting where buying any type of magic item is easy, you'll also find crafting to be a mediocre investment, but if your DM controls the market, the benefits of investment are proportionate to how heavy the restrictions; in a setting where magical crafters are rare, your skills will be a valuable asset to the team.
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I guess I just don't see the appeal in crafting any more here. I loved the alchemist for his crafting, but now it seems so mundane. I get that I can just pay up front and have access to lesser items, but lets take Elixir of Life into example.
At Level 1, this item's price is 3 GP, Then we will jump to level 9 for 150.
Level 1 calculations:
1.5GP upfront cost, spend 4 days crafting, spend remaining 1.5GP (If available (common item, probably available) just buy it and save 4 days of downtime.
Task Level 1, .2GP for trained earning, it will take 8 ADDITIONAL days, to save 1.5 GP, so in 12 days we "earned" 1.5 GP. If I just did Earned income that whole time for the same Level 1, I'd make 2.4 GP (.2x12) in essence, loosing 1GP in the 12 days. Including money spent, with crafting, I've spent 1.5 (1.5GP initial, 12 days total crafting), without, I've spent .6GP (.2GP earned for 12 days giving me 2.4GP, but spending 3 GP on the item.)
Bump up to Level 9
Our new Elixir has a cost of 150 GP, so we spend 75. After 4 days, assuming we made the check, we can spend an additional 150GP for the item, or spend up to an additional 19 days crafting to keep our cost that low (75GP/4GP daily earned income) so, 23 days to save 75 GP in item cost. Total earned income? 92 GP. Again, using the same level (if available) to calculate total. At this level I'd say it's a fair assessment pending where you are that these jobs may not be available, so crafting might be the better option, then again, if it is, you'd just do that as your total actual cost is still lower just buying the bloody thing and working Earned Income the whole time.
Oh, just for giggles, 19 level Elixir cost 4,000 GP and 35 days to complete. Earned Income nets 4,550
I get that they were trying to help balance party WBL, but at the same time, they nerfed crafting so much I don't see a need for it, other than character flavor. I'm just going to buy everything.
Crafting is for Repair and Recall checks IMO. If you aren't doing those, it only has a super niche aspect of access outside a settlement limits but the rules already allow for that without craft: "If a character’s level is higher than the settlement’s, that character can usually use their own influence and leverage to acquire higher-level items, as they convince shops to place specialty orders or artisans to craft custom goods, though it might take a bit of time for such orders to be fulfilled." Since crafting takes time anyway, it's really only uncommon/rare items that aren't found that you've somehow gotten the formulas for that make sense and that should be a pretty small list.
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Exactly my point. Though having it to identify different alchemical items, there really isn’t much use for creating alchemical items.
Since I see you do PFS, you might not be aware that Crafting in Society will generally save you more money than you'd gain through Earn Income. The Earn Income task level is your Level minus 2, whereas when Crafting, you determine your savings based on your actual Level.
Pair that with a Boon to lessen your prep time from 4 days to 1 and you can actually save quite a decent amount.
But yeah, outside of Society, there doesn't appear to be as much use.
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I’ve actually just started PFS, so I don’t have any such boons. I’ll look into it though and see if it’s worth while for my Alchemist.
Perpdepog, as far as I can tell, your Proficiency does increase the amount of progress you make, as the case for the minor elixir, if you made that at level 9, it would only take you 5 days (4 days initial cost +1 day to reduce cost) vs the original 12.