There's been a fair bit of discussion of Alchemical Simulacrum in the past. It is a bit contested regarding what the RAI would be for this ability, along with what would be balanced (I think it's even more the case with Doppelganger Simulacrum), but the RAW is relatively clear at least. And no there has not been any proper clarification/buff on it.
One thing I'll say is that since it doesn't use a spell slot, It SEEMS as though a character could grow a large number of simulacrum all at once since it seems like it has a short/negligible action time.
If this was the case— namely if it was intended, then the higher cost than the wizard spell could be justified. But obviously if one interprets or rules that the 24 hours means that the character has to just pull an all-nighter and literally can't do anything else at all for 24 hours, then it would make strong sense to houserule a significantly cheaper cost for creation, like maybe half that of a normal wizard's simulacrum.
Personally I'd probably just soft ban both the spells and the discoveries because they're complicated, have more gray area when it comes to certain interactions/mechanics, slows combat more if they're ever used in combat, and has significant potential to be abused in overpowered/cheesy ways.
