Heyo! Glad you're enjoying the new update stuff :)
With forge/freezer, we'll probably try to find a better way to keep perma items (since it seems kinda sad to use an entire freezer and only get ice, lol). I don't think it's strictly necessary, but I think perma items are an alright middle ground that doesn't add too much complexity but still makes the crafting seem fair? Truthfully, I have problems with the crafting system as it is right now, and my dream is to eventually build a crafting system that isn't recipe based but is actually generative (think like actual chemistry).
Ahh, Artificer. The game is probably going to sit in its current state for a while - I think it'd take a lot of work to retrofit the crafting updates into Artificer, and we want to change the story anyways, so it's not really worth it right now.
And finally, new items - yes! I think I'll probably release little updates from this point forward with batches of items (which already exist from Artificer, but I have to design into weapons), some new levels, new enemies, etc. I actually added just one new item to this update, but that's not very much lol.