To be honest, your suggestions hold dangers of their own.
I think, when it comes to shopping, people fall in extremes. It's pretty OCD to want to have absolutely every piece of gear on the same level as soon as you lvl up... and it's also pretty needless. We have said enough about OS2 combat. Despite, it still holds enough variety and options for you to be able to tackle anything the game throws at you even if you're underequipped for the level. A bit of armour will not change that--it's mostly an issue at the beginning of the game.
I, for one, give all my party members points into strength, intelligence and finesse exactly because I want to gear them up with anything in hand. If I stick to one high attribute per character, gearing becomes very difficult. If I spread the stats a bit, gearing becomes very easy. That's why I am not against intelligence gear having strength bonuses and so on. Pretty much the same with skills... might just be me, but I never focus on a single skill, such as--I absolutely need to have 20 in summoning. That's quite boring when you think about it, too.
I tend to give some INT to my STR based characters and some STR to my wizard to balance their physical / magical armor stats a bit. FIN items are balanced anyway so those chars should not need any points in INT and STR.
I'm also tired of regular save-scumming and waiting for restocks after each level-up. As the OP suggested, this game feels unfinished regarding crafting. All previous divinity games had an acceptable crafting system. Basic items with no stat increases but with more slots and more rune types could solve this issue easily.
Alternative solution: vendors could provide custom items at enhanced prices. This however, would require an additional vendor menu where you could choose stats for the final item. Level-ups could unlock additional options for these custom items.
Having to stop after each level-up for multiple hours of shopping really kills the immersion.
EDIT: I didn't add this originally as it was already suggested elsewhere on this forum but of course additional quests for unique items or unique ingredients would also be a great option. Sadly, the only memorable unique item in this game is Shadow's Eye.
