Hoping we get to hear from Corey again soon but we likely will not be able to until he is no longer being held hostage to Project Faerthale which is what the team is hardcore sprinting towards.
Launching of Project Faerthale will likely be a watershed moment for VR as it will showcase the first real look at the game and will encompasses more actual game play than all of Ashes of Creation at this point. After that they will be able to start PA5 with a likely PA6 feedback adjustment patch after that before any chance of Alpha. That game state will likely also encourage more corporate level investment which could significantly grow the team to get the game to market faster.
As long as crafting and its role in the life cycle of the game is established at least on paper for PA5 then actually fleshing out many of the nuts and bolts could be a late alpha or early beta tweak.
Just make the process of adding your name to an item associated with a cost or only applicable to items of a certain value. This will prevent folks from abusing it in the example you suggest.