I agree with you that the requests for "lower than your hammer" tier are bad BECAUSE they do not accept "better" material --- it really requires you to have all heads of all materials at day 15 or you will not make it and, as you said, you will lose progress traction because you have to invest way more money into things that might never be requested again.
However, being prepared yields up to 20 customers a day so ... if you keep up with it, I'd say, you still are able to advance the fastest and maybe even faster than fast people that prepare on the fly.
Yeah I found this game through jack :) and since then I love it xD
Mean something like this atrocity? 
If I have to keep stock of copper after this point, I'm going to be running out of room to be any sort of prepared. and as I said with the greatsword/original bug debacle - I can't have them pre-assembled and near each other/the NPC, cause they might lock onto one and refuse while I'm left wondering which that one is, then either fumble, or destroy my place in the process to sell
My Other post contains a vision of "pre-assembled" that I had before understanding the sale bug, and I don't believe I've had it since the iron 1h sword that 'enlightened' me.
and I can't (don't want to) really use the other two shelves, not that they'd be of a lot of help in this endeavor since they're in the forging zone and through a burdening door (assembled on the backboard is 1h and 2h grips with guards ready)
Had 2 copper requests before this post was finished, so the copper shelf is already empty
Edit: I wasn't going to edit but GOD
6 copper requests in a row - practically everything copper in that picture and a pickaxe, is gone.
To be honest the fact that they still request copper and then only take copper is a game breaker for me ^^ it is stressful enough to get your stuff done, but then doing the management for all materials you have? I will wait for a fix xD
Which is where I put that "request" part in at.
See now if they'd "walk in" and accept vague generals (Wants Tin (OR) Greatsword)
Then you'd be able to go "well crap I just so happen to have this BEAUTIFUL LEGENDARY ULTRA SUPER RARE GOD SWORD..... Mithril Greatsword, that I really would like to sell, How's about you take this instead, bub?" SOLD :D (I don't really care that it isn't logical for a Novice Stone Mason to have 400million gold vs what, 4000?)
Of course if you don't have a greatsword or resources, you could still make a sale by shoving a Tin 1h sword in his hand and selling him on its super duper awesome OP game breaking Please Nerf Stats - Its like +100Quality m80, Buy it, you know you wannnaaaa.
OR.. If that seems "unfair" because of the aforementioned "novice" and "gold allowance" - You could introduce a say... 5-10% discount on "Greatsword" that doesn't match "Tin" - Which then your Charisma and Parts choice/material factor heavily into, and really, your charisma.
It'd be a fair-ish balance for being able to go "Here's a titanium greatsword sonny, go play in the woods, be back by suppa and don't poke your eye out!"
and then they'd
"Request" within "x hours" (must be hours or more) a "Special" (can give "Bonus" % value for increased time - maybe say 1% bonus for every hour they "request" for, so if they give you an entire day, you'll get "near" 24% bonus (I'd really say closer to say, half that, if its a day or more, full if its less than 5 - 10 hours))
This way, They can say something like "I'm Looking for a +xx quality Iron GreatHammer - It needs at least xx damage and yy control, I don't care a lot about "protection", Can you make this for me within the next 5 hours?"
That gives you Enough time to
This kinda thing, would make Requests and Walk ins different, as well as "not absolute nightmare fuel that's driving me to want to hurl these weapons at the npcs and annoy me." and more like "Seems plausible and not as aggravating"
