TFP have committed to the "increased cost for increased quality" concept. AFAIK no one asked for it, TFP added it as a design decision - presumably to simulate more materials for a quality product, or wastage in selecting the exact right parts, or just as gameplay tax to offset the fact that items don't lose quality anymore.
With that mechanic in place, costs HAVE to either start at an unreasonably nonsensical level, or increase to an unreasonably nonsensical level. Your proposed solution of reduced resource generation doesn't solve this problem, it only shifts it around, since no matter how much resources you get, whether it's 1% or 10,000% of current levels - the cost increases to 5x from faulty to blue quality...if the top end feels right, the bottom end will feel ridiculous, and vice versa. make the middle tier the "sweet spot" and you end up making 90% of the gameplay feel "wrong" as people seem to tend to stay at low quality or beeline for max quality as quickly as possible.
OP's complaint is merely a casualty of the "increased cost for increased quality" system that TFP put in. Honestly, depending on how you look at the system, it makes sense - a better quality axe head will probably have metal reforged or folded several times to make as dense and solid of a blade as possible. Someone making a high quality mechanical item can't just stick any old parts on it, they'd have to be discerning and choose the exact right part for each job, possibly wasting several parts in trial and error. Requiring more time investment in crafting your top tier items makes sense too - after all, those items don't permanently degrade. For 1 iron and 1 duct tape, you can fix your 100 iron-ingot fireaxe up to brand new no matter how old it is, and keep that quality without having to craft a new one...ever.
Is the system perfect? ofc not, there will always be things given up in order for certain benefits - but it accurately accomplishes what it is trying to accomplish - namely higher quality tools taking more effort to get.