Artisans have been in the phb long before Artisans were a playable class, and they don't inherently have anything to do with artificers. They could be smiths, wood-workers, brewers, cartographers, anyone who makes anything and is part of a guild of people who do that thing. Also just because a villain is flavoured like an existing class that doesn't mean he a) will actually be that class in game or b) that we have to be given access to that class as well.
I am already aware of this. But you could also use Merchant's background for that. I think we had already discussed this in an older thread.
Maybe the problem with the Artificer class is somewhere else entirely. Maybe there is too much overlap for a crafting system and Larian's ingame items? Maybe Larian doesn't have enough ideas to implement items other than what the Artificer can craft, e.g. Potion of Giant Strenght (LR duration) vs. Belt of Hill Gianth Strengh? Maybe they (still) have problems implementing convincing Steel Defender / Eldritch Cannon / Arcane Firearm as Spellcasting Focus (does the latter even exist in BG 3?) character models?
But let me dream. You know hope dies last.
