i think crafting is fine as it is now, the game tracks recipe books you find, and it is not too difficult to figure some new recipes out. Combining some herbs or mushrooms with empty flasks is intuitive and works fine, so you get potions early and without a big effort (also there are enough potions in the game anyway), combining potions isn't hard to figure out also. If you try to combine stuff, something happens or not, not a problem. Good to have a knife, axe, dagger and hammer with you, and of course a mortar and pestle. Later you have a lot more tools, either crafted or found (needle and thread, for example).
I like that there isn't a crafting station (besides from anvil, furnace and mobile kitchen), so that you can craft potions while exploring. But it would be nice to have NPCs (for example a blacksmith, or the doctor, besides from books, who can teach you a few recipes or show you combinations).
i think the books are fine, and also how it is done. does not explain everything, you have to figure it out by yourself, this is what those games always did.
in the tutorial, it is missing, yes, but not everyone is investing in crafting at character creation, so why add stuff people can't do whitout spending points? (lockpicking does work with 0 points, at least in the tutorial). there could be a fireplace or a small, destroyed lab with some potion flasks and herbs, but people would only care if they want to.