If they autolevel companions and they introduce new companions we'll just go right back to making one of the companions a crafting mule ... which is what most of us wanted out of the henchmen in the first place.
I never intended to use one to craft, but why would anyone care? It is a single player role playing game. If someone wants to role play a crafting henchman... then let them role play a crafting henchman. It doesn't effect my game what someone else is doing with game.
Why take something out, then give us the toolset to put it back in?! I think the devs need to do less Nerfy and more Patchy. There is more important things to be done in this game then crafting henchmen.
Besides... what do you think is going to happen when more companions are added? Um... one is going to sit back and craft....