"the game is much less focused on crafting after the first chapter ..."
That's good to know. Again -- I like the game very much, otherwise I wouldn't care and simply move on.
I think the story can't develop properly when every tiny piece of dialogue is followed by 45 minutes of collecting and crafting (and yes, I visited every location each day in order to find characters to whom I could talk).
At the end of chapter 1, I'm surrounded by a dozen notepads, all of them covered with my tiny handwriting, just to be able to do the crafing. It's exhausing. I'd love to replay to explore Britt's feminine side, but the sheer thought of doing all that collecting and crafting again is enough to refrain from it.
About the bug I mentioned -- I remember at least one of them in detail:
For the birthday, I bought the cake first, but hadn't enough money for the bike, so I waited to earn enough to be able to buy the jam and the bike. When I saved enough for the 2 items, the cake had disappeared from my inventory and as far as I know, there's no crafting recipy that needs cake.